CALEDONIA – Already in the midst of a stellar night, New Hope running back Jacob Jefferson had just added a kick return touchdown to his highlight reel to open the third quarter of Thursday night’s Region 1-5A regular-season finale against rival Caledonia – but then the dreaded yellow flags were tossed.
A block in the back erased his climactic score, but it didn’t put too much of a damper on the Trojans’ spirits. They were already leading 35-9 at the break and they knew Jefferson would likely have another crack at it.
Sure enough, late in the third quarter after scoring their second touchdown of the night, the Cavaliers made the mistake of kicking the ball back to Jefferson, and he made them pay once again. Draped in a bronze-gold colored uniform with a black helmet, a speeding blur of color was all that could be made of him as he blazed across Caledonia’s turf once more for a kickoff return touchdown – no flags.
It was a fitting way to cap off a performance of seven carries for 223 yards and five rushing touchdowns for Jefferson, one that resulted in a 55-22 victory for the Trojans, their second win over Caledonia in two years, and one that ended the Cavaliers’ season at 1-9 overall and 1-3 in conference games.
“He’s a dynamic player, man,” New Hope head coach Allen Glenn said of Jefferson. “He’s really, really good when we can get it to him. He’s not the biggest guy in the world, but man he’s got the heart the size of Mississippi. I love that kid. He does it the right way.”
Of his performance, Jefferson said it was a good team win.
“We came out here just playing fast, standing on practice and everything we did. (We) stayed together with no arguing or negative energy,” he said. “(Just) staying positive no matter if we fumbled or anything.”
Caledonia fumbled twice in the game, both resulting in New Hope touchdowns, but the first one was on their very first play of the game. The turnover left the Trojans in the red zone and Jefferson barged in from 1-yard to get New Hope’s party started. The visitor’s defense gave no breathing room to Caledonia and the Trojans took advantage by scoring on their first four drives. Jefferson exploded for a 77-yard touchdown run on the opening play of the team’s next series and backup quarterback Drew Glenn fired a 37-yard touchdown pass to starting quarterback Tyrekus Brooks for a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Cavs broke up the Trojans’ rain of points early in the second quarter with a long clock-chewing drive that resulted in a 14-yard touchdown run from quarterback Cohen Clark, who shrugged off multiple Trojans on his way into the end zone. A bad snap afterward canceled out their PAT try and the team trailed 21-6 halfway through the second quarter. Jefferson picked up where he left off and busted through the middle of the line of scrimmage for his third score, a quick 60-yard touchdown run.
A fumble by New Hope’s Jeremiah Harkins was recovered by Caledonia in the red zone and the team capitalized with a 35-yard field goal from Clark. Just before halftime, Jefferson scored his fourth touchdown from 56 yards out to give his team a 35-9 halftime lead. After his first attempt at a kickoff return was called back, he ran 10 yards for his fifth touchdown of the night to usher in the third quarter with the team’s last offensive score. Jefferson’s kick return and a defensive touchdown from Marvin Vickers, who yanked the ball from a Caledonia ball carrier and ran it back for a score, were the finishing touches on the game.
With the clock running, Caledonia managed to get in a touchdown run from Cole Garner and a rushing score from Bryson Fountain before the final buzzer.
For the Cavaliers, it was a hard way to end an already difficult season that extends their postseason drought to two years.
“(We) didn’t start real well, didn’t play real well, didn’t execute well and I didn’t coach real well. (That) pretty much sums up our whole season,” head coach Michael Kelly said. … “I’m the leader of it. I didn’t put them in a good enough position to win all year. We clearly have to get better, but we just didn’t play well enough to win. You can’t fumble the first snap of the game and can’t give up one-play touchdowns, can’t keep kicking the ball to their best player repeatedly after you tell them not to, but you still have to go tackle the guy, right. That is a part of football, blocking and tackling and we have to get better at that.
“We have the capability to do things well, we struggle to consistently do things well, but I’m proud of those guys; they kept getting after it. A couple of young guys had to get in there and block, a couple of seniors in there finishing this year strong.”
The road is long for the Cavs until they next lace up their cleats for the 2026 campaign, and the offseason will be spent on figuring out ways to stack a few more wins.
“We have to start finding ways to get better,” Kelly said. “It starts with me, then it goes to every coach, every player, every parent. At the end of the day we are all in this thing together, it starts with me though, and we have to push this thing forward and we have to find ways to get better.”
The Trojans move on to the MHSAA Class 5A playoffs and await to see who they will face next week in the first round. No matter who it is, the goal remains the same for New Hope.
“It’s good to get a win. You feel good about it moving forward, but the goal is to go 1-0 next week,” Allen said. “We went 1-0 this week, we have to go 1-0 next week.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
