After his Ashland-Greenwood team took several quarters to get rolling in its season opener, head coach Ryan Thompson reminded the Bluejay players that complete, four-quarter efforts win games.
Two weeks later, it’s fair to say that message came through loud and clear. The Class C-1 No. 2 Bluejays (3-0) have posted back-to-back shutout wins — 33-0 over Milford and 38-0 over Arlington — in their last two games. Those shutout efforts all start with an aggressive defense, which has been stout on first and second downs, limiting opponents’ playbooks.
“Any game that you can keep teams off the scoreboard is pretty special, and I know the kids get pretty excited when the JV guys get in and keep that zero on the board,” Thompson said.
The youth effort for Ashland-Greenwood doesn’t just come during the fourth quarter of big wins, though. Sophomore Drake Zimmerman is the team’s second-leading rusher, freshman Thomas Spears has 18 tackles in three games from his starting spot at safety and freshman Landon Sobota also rotates in along the defensive line.
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Thompson said that having underclassmen ready to contribute right away has been a big boost to the team’s overall depth, especially after suffering a few key injuries. That has certainly been the case at quarterback, where a sophomore has taken on the starting role to great success.
If not for an ACL tear suffered nine months ago during the basketball season, senior Cale Jacobsen would be leading the Ashland-Greenwood offense. Now in the final stage of his medical progression, Jacobsen still hasn’t been cleared for football and it’s possible he won’t see the field at all this season.
That’s because Jacobsen’s future lies with basketball, not football, Ashland-Greenwood understands what’s at stake — a potential college scholarship.
“He’s done a great job being a leader and he’s been a great teammate,” Thompson said. “We get it if we don’t see him in pads; we’re obviously a better team with him, but we understand that we need to see him on the basketball court.”
There’s still a Jacobsen throwing passes for the Bluejays, as sophomore Dane Jacobsen has been the team’s starter thus far. Junior Nick Carroll, another option at quarterback, has a stress fracture in his elbow that is keeping him off the field.
While Carroll played summer baseball, Dane Jacobsen worked with the first-team offense over the summer and that preparation has helped him jump into varsity football without many growing pains. So far, Jacobsen has completed 35-of-52 passes for 469 yards and five touchdowns without having thrown an interception.
“He’s done tremendous. That first game the bullets were probably flying pretty fast on him, but he settled down,” Thompson said. “He’s done a great job staying away from bad throws, he has a good throwing percentage and he manages the game really well.”
The competition for Ashland-Greenwood has been good so far this season — all three of their opponents are undefeated apart from their loss to the Bluejays — and it doesn’t get any easier the next two weeks. Coming to town Friday is No. 6 Wayne, which picked up an impressive 30-17 win over Columbus Lakeview last week.
Last season, the Bluejays won a 28-20 overtime thriller over Wayne, and they’re expecting a similarly tough contest once again.
“They put guys everywhere and use every one of them, so that’s going to stretch our defense to make sure we can play one-on-one matchups,” said Thompson. “We expect one heck of a game, and that’s the kind of game you want to see on Friday night. It should be a fun atmosphere here in Ashland.”
High school football Week 3 is in the books. Here's all of the Journal Star's content, in one spot
Week 3! Our team was out around the city and area to uncover all of the stories that came out of Friday night — here's what we got.
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Need to catch up on Week 3 action? Here's a good place to start. We check in on the city, state, No. 1 teams and more in this "rewind."
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