FOOTBALL: Big homecoming night, fourth-straight win for Dublin vs. Jefferson County

It was both a decisive Dublin win on homecoming, and simultaneously one of Jefferson County’s best performances against a quality team in a long time. 

Ricky Jackson and the Warriors stuck around on the scoreboard and took their time with the football, but the Irish kept them at arm’s length the entire night, and used some big plays in all three departments to squarely put away the 42-13 victory, and record their fourth-straight win, Friday at the Shamrock Bowl. 

Dublin, led by the 130 rushing yards of Travion Bostic and triple digits of kickoff returnage from Bennett Lake, pulled away with the game’s three final touchdowns, all in the fourth quarter. 

A recent scramble of the region schedule, which at first had Dublin entering a bye before two-game road swing in Macon, will send the Irish (4-1, 4-0 region 2-High A) up I-16 eight days sooner than originally planned for a watershed matchup with No. 2-ranked Northeast Thursday at Thompson Stadium. 

Though Dublin made it past the goal line thrice as many times, Jefferson County’s offense still made quite the showing, scoring its highest number through five games and making multiple other trips into home territory that the Irish turned away shy of points. 

Quarterback Ricky Jackson singlehandedly made a lot happen, mostly off the cuff, running up estimated triple-digit totals as both a scrambler and passer. 

Other than some hiccups on one turnover and a brush with a couple more on bad snaps, it was a lack of additional opportunities – as the Warriors ate up first- and second-half clock with their extended drives – that kept Dublin from breaking the game open any sooner. 

But the Irish spent most of the night with their ground attack in high gear. Jeff Davis completed a play-action pass to JaKarian Jones for a 33-yard gain, but rushing represented the remaining 323 yards of Green and Gold production. 

A dozen attempts each yielded a pair of touchdowns from Bostic as the backfield leader, and one on 83 yards by Dontavious Cannon, who found a lane to the house from 39 on the first play from scrimmage. 

The quick score was set up by Lake’s 53-yard opening kickoff return, to foreshadow a bigger one for six much later in the night, and had Dublin on top 7-0 in under a minute of action.  

Jefferson County, whose Jackson had a long third-down scramble called back via penalty on its opening series, was prevented from making any immediate noise by a Jaydon McRae sack that forced a short punt. 

The Irish would convert the field position to a 14-0 lead with Jamarcus Knight’s three-yard touchdown trip, after a 27-yard opening run by Bostic that included a stiff-arm of the umpire and a Cannon carry down to the 1 to get them goal to go. 

Things seemed headed downhill at the usual pace, but that was all Dublin would be able to put on the board before entering the break as Jackson began making some magic. 

He flipped the field on another big third-down keeper, from one 33 to the other, to get things going, then juked out the entire Irish pass rush on an improv to get out of a pickle and inside the Dublin 10. 

After the change of quarters, his tight end Keyshaun Lee snuck open over the middle for a short touchdown connection to get JeffCo on the scoreboard. An extra point later, and the score was 14-7. 

Dublin went to the air twice on its ensuing possession, the first time for a big gainer to broach midfield. But the ball got away from Davis on a subsequent rollout throw, and Lee stepped in front to pick it off. 

Jefferson County picked up a couple first downs, and ran some clock on its march with a threat to score and tie on some darts thrown by Jackson, but a great one to Jacquez Brown on a fourth down came a yard short of the distance needed, and Dublin took back over at its 25. 

The next two Irish plays reached the end zone, on an option toss to Knight that went 75 yards, then a Statue of Liberty draw to Cannon that did the same from a shorter distance, but both were called back on downfield penalties that netted an advance of the ball. 

And the three ensuing plays used up the remainder of the sparse time left in the half. 

Despite some snap issues on its first couple plays, Dublin would open the third quarter with a scoring drive, after holding the Warriors to three plays and a punt. 

Knight took the pitch on a run option and shimmied past a tackler on the key play to help the Irish sidestep the early trouble, and they had little issue from there. He rammed his way over the 26 for a first on the next play, then on third down of the next series, Bostic took one in to the right from 22. 

Jefferson County answered, as Jackson moved the chains on third down with a 20-something yard jailbreak, threw a laserbeam to A.J. Bush and spun one to Timothy Nelson on a deep ball to get down inside the 10.

Dublin stuffed some runs, but Jackson got one out to Brown on third and goal for the touchdown to once again make it a single-score game on the last play of the third. 

But the fourth began with a backbreaker in the form of a kickoff return touchdown by Lake, who ran up to catch the ball at the 19, and dashed 81 yards down the far sideline and reset the lead at 15 (thanks to Urick Andrews on a 6-for-6 night kicking PATs). 

Jackson drove the Warriors back down to around the 35, but Patrick Caldwell came up with a sack to turn them over on downs. 

Bostic broke a 51-yard touchdown on the very next play, and it was 35-13. Lake entered at QB after an ensuing punt, and showed off the offensive wheels on some plays interspersed between carries of his backs, of note Bond on a 47-yard touchdown run that was also nullified by a foul. The Irish kept going down inside the 10, and got it back to Bond on the same play for an 8-yard score round things out. 

Jefferson County knocked on the door with one final drive, but Dorian Carcamo’s breakup of a would-be touchdown pass, and another play to jar one loose by Ty Salter, led to a turnover on downs.