Jones football coaches have pretty much come to the expectation that the defense is going to win games for the Tigers, at least in the early part of the season.
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That was quite evident at Evans on Saturday afternoon in this year’s edition of the Soul Bowl. The Jones defense came up with a third-quarter goal-line stand, had seven sacks and added an interception, wreaking havoc on the Trojans’ offense in a 12-6 victory.
“I had to do my thing. I had to push the guard back and clog the hole, make a play for our team,” said Jones defensive lineman Noah Robinson, a UCF commit.
Robinson had one solo sack, and ganged up with Fred Ards and Dominique Redding on a crucial sack on the first play of a last-ditch fourth-quarter Evans drive with 1:18 left in the game. The loss of six yards on that sack turned out to be quite important as Evans drove down the field inside one minute left in the game, but the Trojans’ drive stalled out at the 18-yard line as time expired.
Ards, a Texas A&M commit, had three solo sacks, and safety Rikelson Docteur and linebacker Andre James Jr. also had sacks.
“Yeah, we lost our whole entire offense from last year, lost every starter,” Jones offensive coordinator Dale Williams said. “We knew we were going to have to lean on our defense.”
The third-quarter goal-line stand, that saw Evans (1-2) take four cracks at the end zone from the 1-yard line, was impressive and loomed large in the grand scheme of things.
“That decided the game right there, that stop,” Williams said.
Williams also said that, “most importantly,” the offense was able to bring the ball out from being trapped at the 1-yard line when the Tigers took over possession. On third down, the offensive line blew open a big hole and running back Kameron Lee found it, popping out with a 13-yard run to get the Tigers out of trouble as the third quarter ended.
Jones (1-1) managed three first downs on the drive before being forced to punt, which chewed up more than six minutes off the clock.
Williams said he was happy with the progress the offense has made. Jones scored on its second possession on a Peyton Carroll to Cameron Tooley 12-yard touchdown pass. The score was set up by a 50-yard pass from Carroll to Marvin Brown that put the ball at the 10-yard line.
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Carroll and Tooley would hook up again in the second quarter when Tooley tracked a deflected pass and gathered it in the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown. Both conversion attempts failed for Jones and the Tigers had a 12-0 lead at halftime.
“We made huge steps today,” Williams said of the offense. “We ran one running play the whole game. Evans does a lot of fronts and we didn’t want to confuse our kids. We just wanted to get ahead of it.”
The 12 points was all the Jones offense could muster, but the defense dispatched Evans on each of its attempts to get back in the game. The Trojans did finally get in the end zone in the fourth quarter when Will Jackson hit Alex Rossi with a 23-yard catch and run for a touchdown. The extra point was wide left.
On Evans final drive, after being sacked on first down, Jackson scrambled for a 19-yard gainer and Evans had some life. Passes to Trenton Hamilton and Oryan Hartfield kept the drive going.
Brian Dillard caught an 8-yard pass with 4 seconds left and a penalty moved the ball to the 18-yard line. But Jackson could not find a receiver on the final play and threw an incomplete pass.
Williams and the Jones coaches were not pleased with the number of penalty flags they saw flying. Jones was whistled for 16 penalties for 155 yards and Evans was flagged nine times for 80 yards.
“I don’t know how many personal fouls we had. We gotta clean that stuff up,” Williams said.
Jones managed a total of 185 yards of offense and Carroll was 8-of-10 passing for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns. Evans had 248 yards of offense and Jackson was 17-of-30 for 193 yards and a touchdown.
Evans will next be at Winter Park on Thursday night and Jones will be at home to face Boone, also Thursday.
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Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.