Jenks breezes to commanding home win against Southmoore

By Buck Ringgold 

Photo of Jenks quarterback Ike Owens by Michael Kinney 

JENKS - Going into Thursday’s home game, Jenks found itself in two situations unusual for that tradition-rich program.

First, the Trojans are fighting for the District 6AI-1 title, and attempting to avoid having to play an opening-round postseason game. Had the regular season ended prior to Thursday, Jenks would not have drawn a bye since the Trojans were tied for second with Norman North, which owns the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Then secondly, even when the Trojans have won games, it hadn’t been easy. Their average margin of victory prior to Thursday was 10.2 points, winning four of their five games by eight points or less.

But this time, the Trojans had a relatively easy go of things.

Jenks scored three touchdowns on its first four snaps from scrimmage and four touchdowns on its first seven snaps. The Trojans even got a pick-six to build a 35-0 lead less than four minutes in, as they went on to defeat Southmoore, 90-9, at Allan Trimble Stadium.

“No (90 points wasn’t in the game plan); the game plan was to execute and we did that,” Jenks coach Keith Riggs said. “I’m really happy with how we played; very opportunistic (Thursday), which we missed some opportunities at times the past few games, so I’m really happy with our play.

“We’ve had to fight them out so far. We’re trying to gain on the injury issue and we’re getting there slowly. We’ve got a few guys that will hopefully be back next week, but just needing all those guys to play together as we get into big games and into the playoffs.”

At the moment, Jenks (6-2, 4-1) is in second place in 6AI-1, a half-game ahead of Norman North, which plays at home against Moore on Friday.

The Trojans end the regular season with a pair of traditional rivals. They are back at home on Oct. 28 to face Broken Arrow - which beat Enid on Thursday - and then cap the regular season on Nov. 3 at Bixby, which won its 57th straight game on Thursday, beating Westmoore.

“Two big games coming up, absolutely,” Riggs said.

In Thursday’s win, the Trojans rushed for exactly 300 yards and threw for 253 more. Quarterback Ike Owens, one of many seniors honored on Senior Night before the game, completed 12-of-15 passes for 241 yards and four TDs, also adding a rushing TD.

“We came out trying to prove a point (Thursday),” Owens said. “The last couple of games had been closer than we needed them to be, and so we needed this big win just to kind of boost our confidence."

Trojan senior running back Jaiden Carroll accounted for his team’s first two TDs, both covering 38 yards. He took a 38-yard swing pass from quarterback Ike Owens on the second play from scrimmage, weaved past defenders on the sideline before turning loose upfield for the first touchdown.

Then, after the SaberCats (1-7, 0-5) punted on their first series, Jenks got the ball at the Southmoore 38 after Ty Walls returned the punt 16 yards. Carroll got a handoff and burst through the middle untouched, and the PAT from Andrew Pursell made it 14-0 with 9:54 left in the opening quarter.

Southmoore faced a fourth-and-short inside its 30 on the next series and elected to go for it. But a running play was stopped a yard shy of the first down.

One play later, from the Southmoore 29, Owens fired a pass to the end zone, where Ayden Christiansen was waiting to make the catch.

Moments later, Jenks lineman Garrett Adams picked off a pass and returned it to the SaberCat 10. Three plays later, Owens plowed forward from a yard out, making it 28-0 with 8:08 left in the quarter.

Just seven seconds later, it became 35-0 when senior defensive back Ty Walls picked off a pass at the 22 and ran it back in for the pick-six.

“To be able to put that many points up, it’s pretty cool for our team,” said Walls, who also caught five passes for 113 yards. “We just wanted to come out here and play our game and we knew we wanted to get a good start out early and get some guys in that usually don’t play, so it was a pretty cool moment to see them get on the field and make plays also.”

Jenks made it 42-0 on its next offensive series, still in the first quarter, as tailback Jalyn Stanford scored from 7 yards out.

Southmoore finally got on the scoreboard on its next possession, a 7-yard TD pass from freshman quarterback Cruz Campbell to Brennon Mason. The PAT was blocked.

The Trojans came right back and scored again. On the second play of the second quarter, Carroll darted around the left side from 20 yards out, extending Jenks’ lead to 49-6 with 11:18 left in the first half.

Southmoore advanced inside the Jenks 10 before stalling. Madan Overton came on to kick a 24-yard field goal, getting the SaberCats within 40.

But the Trojans scored two more TDs in the final two minutes of the first half, both Owens passes.

He connected with Stanford for a 13-yarder; then after Jenks got the ball back following an interception by Ashton Cunningham, Owens fired a 23-yard TD strike to Christiansen with 18 seconds left until halftime, making it 63-9.

Jenks scored again on its second offensive play of the second half, a 27-yard run from sophomore Boston Carrasco. The Trojans got two more TDs in the third quarter; a 9-yard keeper by backup quarterback Simian Gilkey, and a 75-yard pick-six from senior Caleb Suchy.

The Trojans’ final TD came with 7:05 left on a 2-yard run from senior Delmar Gray, who ended up as the leading rusher with 94 yards on 14 carries, all in the second half.