Jaguars jump Tigers

By Staff
J.O. Johnson pulls away late in 37-21 win over Hartselle; Tigers sit in 4th place in Region 8
Justin Schuver, Hartselle Enquirer
HUNTSVILLE – Outlined against a blue October sky, J.O. Johnson defeated Hartselle 37-21 at Huntsville's Goldsmith-Schiffman Field Friday afternoon. The game was originally scheduled for Oct. 18 but inclement weather led to its postponement.
If the unusual starting time of 4 p.m. had any negative effect on the Tigers' mental preparation, it wasn't obvious. Hartselle (3-5, 3-3 in Region 8) broke out to a 14-0 lead after one quarter of play and it looked like the Tigers might be headed for their fourth straight region victory.
But the Jaguars (6-2, 4-2) had other plans, scoring 14 points in the second quarter to tie it at halftime. J.O. Johnson opened the second half with a field goal to take a 17-14 lead and never trailed the rest of the way.
"We might have caught them napping a little bit early," Hartselle coach Bob Godsey said. "I thought our kids played extremely hard, but they just started to out-athlete us down the stretch."
Although the Tigers never regained the lead in the second half, Hartselle stayed close. Hartselle quarterback Luke Bole scored on a 3-yard run early in the fourth quarter to cut J.O. Johnson's lead to 23-21 with 11:25 left in the game.
The Jaguars responded with two straight scoring drives, taking advantage of a Hartselle turnover-on-downs to set up the Jaguars' second fourth-quarter touchdown.
Trailing 30-21 at the time, Hartselle faced fourth-and-4 from its own 28-yard line with a little more than six minutes left in the game. The Tigers elected to go for it, but Bole's pass was incomplete and the Jaguars took over.
Five plays and three minutes later, J.O. Johnson quarterback David Isabelle scored on a 14-yard run.
"We decided we needed to make a stand at that point," Godsey said of his decision to go for the first down. "We could have punted it and kept the game close, but since we were down two scores at the time I felt our only way to win was to score on that drive.
"You're not going to get many big plays on (the Jaguars). They're just so fast they'll run you down. We felt we had to challenge them there if we wanted a chance to win."
The Jaguars' game plan was to make Hartselle one-dimensional by shutting down the Tigers' running game. J.O. Johnson was largely successful, holding the Tigers to just 92 yards on the ground- Hartselle combined for 629 rushing yards in its most recent wins over Athens and Brewer.
"Coming in we knew we didn't want to let Hartselle run and throw on us," J.O. Johnson coach Harold Wells said. "So our decision was to try to take away the run, because they're pretty potent there. It is really tough to game plan and prepare for Hartselle just because they are fundamentally sound in everything they do.
"We had to be on top of our game tonight and we were fortunate to do enough to pull out the win."
Hartselle jumped out to an early lead on a 35-yard pass from Bole to Braddock Wilson and following Tyler Bennich's extra point the Tigers led 7-0 just 1:56 into the contest. Hartselle added another touchdown when Bole ran for 9 yards with 3:00 left in the quarter.
Johnson responded in the second quarter with two touchdowns of 24 yards and 1 yard from senior running back Jimmy Vaughn. Vaughn finished with 102 yards on 15 carries.
J.O. Johnson clinched a spot in the postseason and Hartselle can do the same if the Tigers beat West Point and J.O. Johnson beats Athens this Friday. The Tigers are currently tied with Athens for fourth place in Region 8 and are in line to face Cullman in the first round of the playoffs – the Bearcats defeated Hartselle 45-20 earlier this season.
Although Godsey was proud of his team's effort against the Jaguars, he made it clear Hartselle would not claim any moral victories.
"Even though (Johnson) is going to finish third in the region, if you talk to most people they'll tell you that (Johnson) is the most talented team," he said. "But it's important to say that even though we played as hard as we could play, we're never going to be satisfied with just playing an opponent close. We want to win."
Hartselle's final regular season home game is against West Point (1-7, 0-6) Friday night at 7 p.m. at J.P. Cain Stadium.