Travis,
I think you would find many people from Lake who will beg to differ with you about Jackson being a reputable community. They are teaching their young men to be mean, nasty, and aggressive on the football field. The game last night tipped in Jackson's favor when Lake turned a 1st and goal at the one and a half yard line into a fourth and goal from the 4 or 5 and then missed a FG. Lake had to try and get fancy down there and had a motion penalty that was unnecessary. After the missed FG, Jackson took a mere 2 plays to go the distance on 2 short pass plays that turned into a 40-something yard completion and then another to Jackson's only big-play threat, #12 Jake Ryan, who took it 30-something yards for the score. Lake came back down and scored late in first half but they never seemed to mount any threat in 2nd half and Jackson just did a lot of whatever they wanted to do, and Lake had a player who also had a cheap 15-yarder that didn't help. Jackson can play solid defense, and they are methodical on offense, but they always come down to #12 and he is a stud. Highlight of the night was definitely a perfectly thrown ball down the Jackson sideline into very good coverage that Ryan snagged in stride and high-stepped out of the would-be tackle of the defensive back to take it the house for an 80-yard score. Late in the game, Jackson even ran their QB (who I thought had strings hanging out of his pants, but they were his legs), and he ran hard and scored the 3rd TD on a nice zone-read play. Also, I thought Lake made a HUGE mistake while they were trailing 14-3 and Jackson faced a 4th and 5 from Lake's 30 yard line and Jackson sent in Ryan, who is the punter, but he is also the backup QB. He never even got close to getting in punt formation and as they looked at Lake's defense and they already had their returner back at the 10, they snapped it with Ryan in the shotgun and he ran around the right side for an easy first down and punched it in shortly thereafter with the QB's nice run. In short, Jackson looks to be solid AGAIN and from what I have observed, appears to be primed to battle with McKinley for the Fed Title. Lake looks like a solid team but has no identity on offense. I love their RB but it appear they just run him on the same quick dive play over and over and over and.....well, you get it. Parts of me think Lake over thinks themselves on offense and that Jackson out-coached them in several critical points.