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PrintA night that began with talk of tiebreakers, point differentials and a district championship ended with frustration and tears for the Hickman football team.
Jefferson City defeated the Kewpies 44-6 to claim the District 6 championship on Friday night.
There were a slew of playoff scenarios going into Friday as Jefferson City, Hickman and Fort Zumwalt West all had a chance to win the district title and the playoff berth that goes along with it. But Jefferson City took the easiest route to postseason play: beat Hickman. After halftime, the result of the game was never in doubt.
Hickman had an opportunity to take control of the game early on, but let the opportunity fall.
After Hickman forced Jefferson City to punt on its first drive, the Kewpies were forced to punt themselves. But Jefferson City muffed Stephen Peel’s punt, which gave Hickman the ball back on the Jays’ 35 yard line.
“When you get short fields you got to take advantage of it, and we didn’t do it,” Hickman coach Jason Wright said.
Hickman was unable to get any points from the great field position and Jefferson City took control from there, scoring touchdowns on three of its next four possessions.
“Those guys had a great game plan,” Wright said of the Jefferson City coaching staff. “They knew what we were going to do.”
The bright spot of the game for Hickman came after Jefferson City’s third touchdown. The Jays attempted an onside kick, and Hickman defensive end Chris Mason scooped up the kick and ran it back 50 yards for Hickman’s lone score of the game.
“That was the highlight of the game,” Wright said. “He (Mason) is only going to get better.”
After that play, it was all Jefferson City.
Hickman struggled the entire game with controlling Jefferson City’s defensive line. Defensive ends Terrell Resonno, who has verbally committed to play for Missouri, and Richard Johnson, who is also being recruited by Missouri, showed why they are ranked as the 7th and 19th best players in the state by the recruiting web site Rivals.com.
“It came down to Resonno and Johnson and some of those guys (on the defensive line) making plays,” Wright said.
Most of Hickman’s running plays were stuffed at the line of scrimmage and quarterback Nick Timberlake appeared to be hurried on most of his pass attempts.
It was the last high school game for Timberlake, who could not control his emotions after the game.
“We knew they were a really good team,” he said. “But this isn’t a feeling we wanted to have right here. We were going to do anything for the win. We were really focused coming in, we knew we had a chance but it just didn’t work out for us.”
Jefferson City (6-4) will take on Francis Howell Central (8-2) in the first round of the Class 6 playoffs on Friday.
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