Jackson Ironmen Display Their Strength In Overtime Thriller Against Wheelersburg Pirates
By: Will Price, Zack Mothersbaugh
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JACKSON, Ohio (WOUB) — The Jackson Ironmen hosted the Wheelersburg Pirates as each team came off of a tough week four loss. With both teams looking to get back above .500, this game came down to the wire…twice.
The Ironmen came out on the winning side of two potential game-deciding plays to escape this game with a 21-20 win.
This game started out sloppy, as three of the first four drives resulted in fumbles, two by the Pirates and one by the Ironmen. After the dust settled on the first quarter, the game was tied at 7-7.
For the first score, Wheelersburg fumbled the exchange of a handoff and Ironmen defensive back Drew Bragg scooped it up and took it 30 yards for the score. After Jackson failed to score on a Wheelersburg fumble on the Pirates very next offensive play, the Ironmen put the ball on the ground. This led to a short, four-play drive that ended in Wheelersburg running back Ethan Glover powering in his first touchdown of the game from three yards out.
Jackson answered that touchdown with a long drive that ended with quarterback Evan Spires delivering a beautiful pass to wideout Eli Broermann for a 17-yard touchdown to put Jackson up 14-7. That score would hold until halftime.
The second half would start out slow, as it took nearly the entire third quarter for anybody to get back on the board. The score came thanks in large part to an Eli Sword interception that put Wheelersburg on the one yard line. The Pirate’s offense would take advantage of that field position on the very next play as Glover would punch in his second touchdown of the day.
The fourth quarter came and went without a single score, although Pirate’s placekicker Braxton Sammons came within inches of giving Wheelersburg the win as he hit the crossbar on a 51-yard field goal at the end of regulation.
Overtime started with an easy four-play drive for the Ironmen that was capped off by an 11-yard touchdown pass from Ironmen quarterback Jacob Winters to running back Cade Wolford. Jackson kicker Ethan Crabtree would go on to nail the extra point.
Wheelersburg came back with an easy four-play drive of their own. They capped off the drive with Glover getting his third touchdown of the game, another from one yard out. Wheelersburg then tried to end the game right then and there as they attempted a two-point conversion that got blown up by the Jackson defense.
The big story of this game was the turnovers. Of all six touchdowns in this game, Jackson had the only drive longer than four plays and farther than 20 yards with an eight-play, 80-yard drive. That didn’t even cover all the turnovers as Wheelersburg had two other fumbles that didn’t result in points for the Ironmen.
The Pirates (2-3) will look to bounce back against the Minford Falcons (2-1) and get themselves back to .500, while Jackson (3-2) will look to keep the momentum next week against the Hillsboro Indians (3-2).