Zay Brown, Calvin Jackson help Red Bank remain undefeated in region

Football
Football

Red Bank High School football coaches and fans have grown accustomed to big plays from junior Calvin Jackson and the Lions' offense.

On Friday night, a tense home crowd had to wait a little longer than usual - but when Jackson finally erupted, the offensive outburst couldn't be contained.

Jackson finished with 120 yards on 12 carries, including three touchdowns, as the Lions beat Brainerd 30-12 to remain undefeated in Region 3-3A. Red Bank senior Zay Brown finished with 207 yards on 24 carries.

"We don't play as many guys both ways as some teams in our classification, so we wear teams down until the third or fourth quarter," Red Bank coach Chad Grabowski said. "Then we kind of explode, and that's what we did tonight."

That explosion came with just more than a minute left in the third quarter and the Lions (6-2, 4-0) still trailing 12-7.

On a fourth-and-1 from near midfield, Jackson lined up behind center in the wildcat formation before breaking off one of his highlight-reel runs. He went through the defense for a 51-yard touchdown to give the Lions a lead they never relinquished.

Jackson added a 28-yard score just more than two minutes later, and the Lions led 21-12 early in the fourth quarter.

"During halftime, we game planned and tried to fix our mistakes," said Jackson, who had a 3-yard score in the second quarter. "We just came out in the second half and put that plan to use."

While Brainerd (1-7, 0-4) bottled Jackson up for much of the first half, Brown was able to effectively pound the ball between the tackles.

"We have to focus on playing the full 48 minutes," said Brown, who had a 26-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter. "If we play the full 48 minutes, we can't lose."

Brainerd appeared poised to pull off the upset as it limited Red Bank's big plays in the first half and forced several mistakes, including a blocked punt, a fumble - which the Panthers recovered - and an interception.

The Panthers also came up with a few big offensive plays of their own, scoring on a 30-yard reverse pass from freshman quarterback Xiyeer Lattimore to Jalen Pinkerton and a 38-yard strike to Pinkerton from senior Joseph Norwood.

"What we can take from games like this is just game experience," first-year Brainerd coach Tyrus Ward said. "Next time we're in this type of game, we can draw from this experience and finish. Everybody is all in, in terms of doing what we ask them to do."

Red Bank has a nonregion game at Lenoir City next week before hosting Loudon (7-1, 4-0) to close the regular season in a matchup that will determine the Region 3-3A champion.

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