Jacobs comes through with big second half to beat Hampshire

ALGONQUIN – Confidence is a funny thing.

Teams usually gain it with victories. Sometimes, as was the case with Jacobs, they can get it in defeat.

“We were right there last week,” Golden Eagles running back Joey Scrivani said, regarding Jacobs’ 6-0 loss to Prairie Ridge. “We just needed a little tweak, a little adjustment and tonight I think we showed that.”

The Eagles put on a rushing display Friday night, running for 286 yards and Scrivani scored four touchdowns as they beat Hampshire 28-7 in their Fox Valley Conference game.

The score was tied 7-7 at halftime before the Eagles (1-1, 1-1 FVC) took control.

The Eagles took the opening kickoff and marched 77 yards in 14 plays in a drive that took almost 8 minutes. However, Hampshire (1-1, 1-1) stiffened in the second quarter, holding Jacobs to just 13 yards on the ground and pulled even on Alexander Lazar’s 4-yard run with 41 seconds left in the half.

Hampshire lost the services of star running back Cole Klawikowski, who was injured running on a fake punt. He never returned and his status remained unclear after the game.

Scrivani (10 carries, 56 yards) scored on runs of 3, 20, 1 and 6 yards. Running mate T.O. Boddie rushed for 100 yards on 10 carries and Paulie Rudolph chipped in 38 yards on six rushes.

“We made the halftime adjustment of keeping our runs outside instead of cutting them up inside and that made all the difference,” Scrivani said. “The offensive line, the other backs and the tight end all did a phenomenal job blocking. We did not want to go into Huntley week at 0-2.”

Meanwhile, the Jacobs defense was solid, holding Hampshire to 23 yards rushing and 125 total yards. On the night, Jacobs ran 58 plays to Hampshire’s 34.

“Coach (Tom) Domenz does not get enough credit for our defense. He’s had those kids executing at a high level in both games,” Jacobs coach Brian Zimmerman said. “We held a really good team (Prairie Ridge) to six points last week and tonight we held (Hampshire) to seven. We have a lot of different kids who can run the ball and once we started hitting the holes instead of stopping at the hles, we were on our way.”

Hampshire was led by quarterback Luke Lacke who was 7-for-17 for 102 yards. Ari Fivelson caught five of those passes for 81 yards.

“That’s a good football team over there,” Hampshire coach Shane Haak said. “We had some opportunities in the second quarter and we made some plays. We just need to play in these tough games, these tough situations and do a better job executing. But overall, our kids played hard.”