MHS football: Jacobs runs wild in Owls' finale

The Owls went into halftime with a 14-0 lead, thanks to senior Matt Buford's 72-yard punt return. (Chris Allen/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

It was only fitting that Marshall football fans' final memory of senior Matt Jacobs was a breakaway 57-yard dash to the end zone.

Jacobs closed his career Friday with a career-high 341 rushing yards and four touchdowns during the Owls' 33-15 victory over NCMC and Class 4, District 8 foe Kirksville. For Marshall's 16 upperclassmen, it may have taken some of the sting out of a third straight losing season.

"I'm really happy for the seniors to get a win in their last game," declared MHS head coach Paul Thomas, working from the press box as he continued to recover from heart surgery. "They've worked hard for four years."

The Owls scored on their second possession, an 11-play, 85-yard drive -- which almost ended early before Jacobs got the needed yardage on fourth down and a yard to go from the MHS 24-yard line. Jacobs had runs of 16 and 14 yards, and the Tigers took a 15-yard facemask penalty, before going in from 10 yards out.

Marshall took 11 snaps on its next series, getting to within 12 yards of the goal line before an illegal block call stalled the drive. However, the Owls won the ensuing punt exchange when senior Matt Buford returned the kick 72 yards, speeding through the congestion along the Kirksville sideline, with five minutes left in the first half.

"Matt's got that capability of breaking things at any time," Thomas said about his two-time conference sprint champion. "There was some pretty good blocking on that play."

The Tigers threatened before the break, senior Trevor Allinson hooking up with senior Jacob Lamp for a 33-yard pass and a personal foul against Marshall spotting the ball on its 14-yard line.

Kirksville reached the 7, but on fourth down junior Tanner Dillon broke through on a safety blitz and sacked Allinson for a 7-yard loss.

Jacobs began the second half with a 52-yard run on his first carry and a 26-yard touchdown blast through the middle on his fourth.

The Tigers answered with an eight-play, 64-yard drive, Allinson using his feet to escape the clutches of senior Willie Nichols on a third-and-19 scramble to complete a 22-yard pass to senior Reese Kerlin to the Marshall 7. Lamp caught a 5-yard pass to close the margin to 21-7.

However, Kirksville was unable to come up with a stop. The Owls staged an 18-play series which chewed up nearly eight-and-a-half minutes, Jacobs banging in from the 3, to take back control of the game.

"We saw some things early in the second quarter," Thomas said. "We talked about blocking man-on-man more."

The Tigers' ground game, which wound up netting minus-10 yards, was abandoned as Allinson completed eight passes in a row to set up his 1-yard sneak with 4:26 to go. But it took Kirksville (1-9, 0-6 NCMC, 0-3 District 8) five-and-a-half minutes to do it, and then Jacobs wiped it all out with his dazzling last run.

"He's a good kid and runs hard every play every game," Thomas said. "A great kid."

Jacobs closed the season with 1,606 yards and 12 TDs on 317 attempts, 151 yards and 12 carries more than last year's all-state performance -- giving him 3,051 yards over two seasons. Even with Jacobs, though, the Owls (3-7, 3-3, 1-2) were unable to improve against a rugged schedule.

"You look back on the games we played, and we were in almost all of them," said Thomas, whose club lost only one game by more than two scores. "That's kind of the way the ball bounced for us, different breaks here and there."