Foothill, Jackson outlast Cougars

In a battle of two of the Southeast League's top running backs, Foothill's Justice Jackson may have had fewer yards than Coronado's Jordan Patterson on Thursday, but Jackson came out on top where it mattered — the scoreboard.

Jackson ran for 194 yards and three second-half touchdowns on 37 carries, and the visiting Falcons held off the Cougars, 38-35.

"I have to dedicate this game to my line because without (them), I wouldn't be where I am right now," Jackson said. "We executed on both sides of the ball. Yeah, we made a couple of mistakes, but we made up for them and it showed on the scoreboard.

"This was a really important win for us. We came into this game knowing we had to get a win. We lost to Basic last week, and we knew we had to bounce back."

Foothill coach Marty Redmond said Jackson, who has now rushed for 1,226 yards on the season, has been outstanding all season.

"I love the kid," Redmond said about his senior running back. "He's getting a lot of carries for us. He really runs hard, and he finishes a lot of runs going forward and breaking tackles. He ran extremely hard tonight … probably as well as I've seen him run. He's a heckuva football player. He's carried us for a few games and no exception tonight. He really ran the ball hard and made some big plays."

The game didn't start off well for the Falcons (6-2, 2-1).

Patterson, who ran for 223 yards and two touchdowns on 33 carries, scored on a 67-yard touchdown run on the game's opening drive to give Coronado a 7-0 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, the Cougars (3-5, 1-2) recovered a pooch kick in Falcons territory and scored two plays later on a 1-yard quarterback keeper by Landon Rowland to go up 14-0.

Foothill's Brandon Hargis turned the tide, however, on his 67-yard kickoff return for a touchdown on the next kickoff. Kaelii Maruyama then hit a 30-yard field goal to cut the Cougars lead to 14-10 with 2 minutes, 11 seconds left in the first quarter.

The Falcons grabbed the lead in the second quarter, when Devon Mueller scored a 5-yard run to go up 17-14 with 2:47 remaining. The score stood at halftime.

"We needed a tough game and for our kids to play well in a close game," Redmond said. "So it was good for us to be in that kind of atmosphere. You have to make plays when the games are close, and they were able to do that and gritted out a win."

DaQu'an Davis put the Cougars back on top with a 70-yard punt return with 10:12 in the third quarter.

But the Falcons were able to take control of the game after, as Jackson scored on runs of 30 and 12 yards to push the lead to 31-21 early in the fourth quarter.

Coronado refused to quit, though, and pulled within 38-35 with 4:11 remaining. But after stopping Foothill on its next possession, the Cougars lost a fumble to end the game.

"We knew they had a bunch of good players coming back from last year's team, and they had some really talented kids out there," Redmond said. "We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game for us. We were going to have to battle and scratch it out. We were hoping it wouldn't be this close, but we had a couple of special teams miscues tonight, and that helped them quite a bit. But we were able to overcome that, and I was real proud of how our kids were able to handle that adversity."

The Falcons host Green Valley next week for the Southeast League's No. 2 seed in the playoffs. The Cougars, who will travel to Basic, already are locked into the No. 4 seed.