High school football: Marengo pulls away from Harvard in rivalry game

MARENGO – Marengo’s Jarrell Jackson sensed that his team needed somebody to make a play.

So he made three.

After quarterback Zach Knobloch was intercepted on his first pass of the second half (his fourth interception of the game), Jackson got the ball back for Marengo with an interception of his own.

"I was hoping they'd pass it my way," the senior running back-defensive back said. "They weren't throwing it my way most of the game."

But, after Marengo took over on offense, Jackson wasn't done.

On fourth-and-2 on the Marengo 48, the Indians ran a fake punt. Jackson got that, too, taking the direct snap and running five yards.

After his brother, junior running back Jarren Jackson took the next three rushes and Craiton Nice hauled in a 5-yard catch, Jarrell Jackson ran for another 15 yards to the Harvard 17. A bad snap cost the Indians four yards, setting up a fourth-and-long on Harvard’s 21 with Marengo clinging to a 15-13 lead late in the third quarter.

That's when Jarrell Jackson made his biggest and most impressive play.

The Indians called a sweep to the left, but Harvard sniffed it out, bottling Jackson up. He then bounced off a tackle, turned around, made a dead sprint across the field and found open space down the right sideline with key blocks from Knobloch and Nice, running it in for a 21-yard score, extending Marengo's lead to 22-13 with 2:24 left in the third.

"Before the play started, the way they [Harvard] lined up, they knew a toss sweep was coming," Jackson said. "Once I got over there, I saw there was no way. So I turned around ... I was really tired, but we needed it. We didnt have the best first half so i had to step up and get the team straight."

Jarrell's younger brother, Jarren, carried the offense for most of the game, rushing 23 times for 172 yards and four touchdowns, including two scores in the fourth. Kyle Gara (71 yards) added a fourth-quarter score as Marengo (5-0 overall, 3-0 BNC East) went on to a 42-19 Big Northern Conference East Division win.

UNSUNG HERO

Jarren Jackson

Marengo, RB, jr.

Jackson scored four touchdowns from 2, 4, 17 and 27 yards out, carrying the ball 23 times for 172 yards.

THE NUMBER

2: Consecutive wins for Marengo over Harvard (Hornets won previous 12)

AND ANOTHER THING

Harvard intercepted Marengo's Zach Knobloch four times (Reiss Bielski, John Peterson, Mason Thompson, Bryton Crosby). Knobloch only had four interceptions entering the game. Bielski returned his interception 16 yards for the score with 2:00 minutes left in the first half, cutting Marengo's lead to 15-6 at the time.

Marengo 42, Harvard 19

Harvard    0    6    7    6    –    19

Marengo    7    8    7    20    –    42

First quarter

M–Jarren Jackson 2 run (Ramirez kick), 6:58

Second quarter

M–Jarren Jackson 4 run (Jarrell Jackson run), 4:28

H–Crosby 16 interception return (kick failed), 2:00

Third

H–Perkins 13 pass from Lehman (Bielski kick), 10:08

M–Jarrell Williams 21 run (Ramirez kick), 2:24

Fourth

M–Jarren Jackson 17 run (Ramirez kick), 11:46

M–Kyle Gara 6 run (kick failed), 7:59

H–Joyce 15 run (pass failed), 5:17

M–Jarren Jackson 27 run (Trainor kick), 4:32

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING–Harvard: Joyce 19-68, Freres 8-25, Lehman 5-51, Peterson 3-10, Rodriguez 1-1, Bough 4-8. Totals: 40-163. Marengo: Jarren Jackson 23-172, Knobloch 8-minus 13, Gara 5-71, Jarrell Jackson 9-77. Totals: 45-307. PASSING–Harvard: Todd Lehman 8-15-2-52, Peterson 3-8-0-51. Marengo: Knobloch 17-24-4-162. RECEIVING–Harvard: Bielski 3-13, Freres 5-52, Hall 1-10, Perkins 1-13, Rodriguez 1-15. Marengo: Jarrell Jackson 6-51, Roudabush 4-39, Olson 3-37, Nice 3-24, Mier 1-11. TOTAL YARDS: Harvard 266, Marengo 469.