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McDonald tops Jackson-Milton in thriller

NORTH JACKSON — A year ago, the McDonald Blue Devils and the Jackson-Milton Blue Jays met in the opening round of the playoffs.

A year later, graduation and injuries hampered a lot of what each team would have liked to have accomplished, but McDonald rode the legs of Nathan Giilligan to once again get the best of the Blue Jays, this time in a 28-26 thriller.

Gilligan had to pick up the slack for the Blue Devil offense after Logan Hawk left the game with a leg injury on the opening series of the game for McDonald (3-6, 3-2).

Hawk was part of a one-two punch for the Blue Devils coming in 60 yards short of 1,000 yards rushing on the season.

Gilligan finished with 326 yards rushing on 26 carries with three touchdowns.

“Logan Hawk is my brother,” Gilligan said. “I’m praying for him right now. He took a rough hit. I’m just hoping he’s doing good right now. Honestly, I know it’s so cliche but it’s my offensive line; the holes were there, they were massive every time. All I had to do was make one guy miss. They just leaned on me.”

Gilligan did reflect on his last game as a Blue Devil.

“I was thinking I don’t know, maybe around 200 mark,” he added. “I didn’t know I ran for that much. I think it’s just because it’s the final game. The whole thing feels like a blur, but, that’s crazy, I didn’t think I could do that.”

But he did.

The Blue Devils didn’t miss a beat as Gilligan ran for 207 yards in the first half as the Blue Devils built out a 21-7 lead on a ball control based offense as McDonald ran it 20 times to just one pass play.

“Logan and Nate have been our one-two punch all year,” McDonald coach Dan Williams said. “When you lose your second guy in this offense, it gives you a little bit of trouble but I was proud of the way Nate Sierra came in and handled himself.

“Your backup guy doesn’t get a lot of reps in practice and hasn’t got a lot of reps because Hawk never missed a snap all year. We told Nathan that we’re gonna put it on your shoulders and ride you.”

After both teams punted on their opening possessions, the Blue Devils started their next possession pinned back at their own two yard line.

After a two yard run from Nathan Sierra gave McDonald a little breathing room, Gilligan took it 96 yards down the McDonald sideline to make it 7-0 with 3:52 left in the opening quarter.

After forcing another Jackson-Milton punt, Gilligan again scored on a big play, this time from 54 yards out to make it 13-0 with eight seconds left in the opening quarter.

The Blue Jays (2-7, 1-5) responded on an eight play, 65 yard drive to cut the McDonald lead to 13-7 after Tanner Butler’s seven yard run with 8:17 left in the first half.

On their ensuing possession, McDonald started on their own 34 with 8:16 on the clock.

They would run 8:06 off the clock on a 12 play drive with Nathan Sierra finding Danny Gray on a eight yard pass to put them up by 14, 21-7 after Gilligan’s run on the two point try.

“That was a big touchdown pass to go up two scores before the half,” Williams said. “To have a kid coming off the bench with no experience at quarterback on the varsity level, give him credit for the way he responded. He took care of the football, put guys in the right position, and had a couple key runs. He kept the defense honest as well.”

McDonald increased to 28-7 with 4:55 left in the third quarter after Gilligan’s 11 yard run.

With the way the Blue Devils were controlling the time of possession it seemed that they were on their way to an easy win.

The Blue Jays scored on their ensuing possession on a one yard carry from Eythan Evans to make it 28-13 with 10:35 left in the game.

On their ensuing possession, the Blue Devils were marching down the field again until a trio of penalties stopped the drive at their own 43.

Facing a third-and-five from their own 35, Owen McDevitt found Butler rolling out to the right side.

Butler got past the McDonald secondary to score from 65 yards out to make it 28-20 with 4:20 left in the game.

Jackson-Milton forced a three-and-out and set up shop at midfield. Four plays later, Aiden Stanke hauled in a nine yard pass from McDevitt to make it 28-26 with 1:53 left.

On the biggest play of the game, Sierra stepped in front to incept McDevitt to seal the Blue Devil victory.

“Our kids wanted to win this for our seniors,” Williams said. “We only have six seniors and especially when Logan got carried out of here with an injury, that really added momentum. Our underclassmen knew what it meant for the seniors to finish with a win. They played above themselves.

“They played as hard as they have all year. I mean we played as good a defense as we played all year long here tonight. We were able to run the ball for 300 some yards. We were happy with that output. It doesn’t look like it on the scoreboard, but this is one of the best outings we’ve had all year.”

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