Jacobs scores pair of 4th-quarter touchdowns to beat Burlington Central

BURLINGTON – T.O. Boddie proudly flipped up the back of his Jacobs No. 1 jersey to reveal the back plate on his shoulder pads, which featured his nickname written in black ink.

“Take. Over.”

“I’ve been going by T.O. since the start of high school,” said Boddie, a 5-foot-11, 178-pound senior running back/cornerback whose real first name is Tyvon. “I gave myself that nickname because people were mispronouncing my [first] name.”

Boddie’s self-given nickname seemed apropos after he and his offensive teammates decided to take over Friday night’s Fox Valley Conference showdown between the visiting Golden Eagles and Burlington Central. Jacobs scored twice in the fourth quarter to pull out a come-from-behind 21-18 win.

Jacobs (4-2, 4-2 FVC) won for the fourth time in its past five games, while snapping Central’s four-game winning streak.

“Hard-fought win,” Jacobs coach Brian Zimmerman said. “Great job by [Central] coach [Brian] Iossi and his team.”

The Rockets (4-2, 4-2) needed a win to become playoff-eligible for the first time since 2014, the last time they made the postseason. Iossi said while his team was well aware of what was at stake Friday night, the Rockets didn’t spend time discussing it.

“In years past, we would have been talking about it,” Iossi said. “But we haven’t talked about anything. We didn’t talk about homecoming [Week 4 win over Crystal Lake Central], we didn’t talk about the playoffs. We’re just doing our thing. There are a lot of three-year [varsity] starters on this team, and they know where we’re at.”

Jacobs scored on the game’s opening possession, with Connor Goehring throwing a 7-yard touchdown pass to PJ Barnes, and used its ball-possession attack effectively all night.

Boddie (15 carries, 81 yards), Mike Cannady (17 carries, 77 yards) and Matt Scardina (9 carries, 37 yards) helped make up for the absence of bruising running back Caden DuMelle, who was out with what Zimmerman called a “103-degree fever.” DuMelle’s effort against Dundee-Crown in Week 5 gave him nine games in a row with 100-plus rushing yards.

“I did miss my brother,” Boddie said of DuMelle. “He is a big part of our game. Michael Cannady really did his thing, coming in and filling [DuMelle’s shoes]. All of our running backs just work hard.”

Boddie, Cannady, Scardina and quarterback Connor Goehring – whose 12-yard keeper on third-and-8 helped set up Boddie’s late-fourth-quarter score – ran behind a line featuring Vince DeLordo, Landon Carlson, Jake Sindles, Lucas Retzler and Connor Uhler.

“Everybody stepped up,” Zimmerman said. “Really proud of our guys.”

Jacobs’ offense might have been at its best during a second-half drive that answered Jackson Alcorn’s right-corner TD pass from 2 yards out to Caden West (8 catches, 43 yards) to give the Rockets their first lead at 10-7 with a 4:52 left in the third quarter. The drive covered 75 yards on 14 plays.

Jacobs started its ensuing possession at its own 21 and kept the ball for the next 9:20. Boddie converted on fourth-and-1 from the Golden Eagles’ 30, and on fourth-and-1 from the Jacobs 43. Cannady capped the 16-play drive with a 6-yard TD run with 7:32 to go in the fourth, making it 14-10.

“It felt nice,” Boddie said of the momentum-changing possession. “I give all the credit to my linemen. They really did their thing and really kept us going. There was nothing but positivity in the huddles.”

Scardina showed his value on the drive with second-down gains of 7, 5 and 3 yards.

“He hit the holes hard,” said DeLordo, a 6-foot-3, 285-pound senior who also plays nose guard and had a second-quarter sack. “He got some big runs for us, big first downs, which kept our offense rolling. The key to our offense is get 3-4 yards per play, and if you keep on doing that, you’ll wind down the clock and you’ll grind down the defense that you’re playing.”

Jacobs’ defense held Central after the Golden Eagles’ go-ahead score in the fourth, with the Rockets throwing incomplete on fourth-and-5 from their own 42. Jacobs then ate more clock. Boddie’s 7-yard TD run made it 21-10 with 1:19 left, capping a 10-play drive.

“He was running hard tonight,” Zimmerman said. “He’s been running like a man possessed the last five weeks.”

Central didn’t quit even after Boddie’s touchdown. Alcorn (18-of-26 passing for 157 yards, 41 rushing yards) hit Lucas Kerr from 12 yards out, capping a 65-yard drive, with 1.3 seconds left. Alcorn then hit Noah Nedlund on the conversion pass.

“That kid’s a heck of a quarterback,” Zimmerman said.