Northeast trounces Dodge County 33-14 for control of region

Long before Northeast’s game against Dodge County kicked off in Eastman on Friday, Keandre Jackson knew what he wanted.

The Raider wide receiver wanted a win — not just for himself, but for his coaches, particularly head coach Jeremy Wiggins.

“I know we haven’t won the region (since 2009), I was just trying to get my coaches and the staff a little win. I’ve been texting Coach Wiggins since last week like, ‘I’ma get you one, I’ma get you one,’” Jackson said.

He was a man of his word.

Jackson was the key man for the Raiders’ offense in a dominant 33-14 win over the Indians, hauling in six catches for 170 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a victory that put Northeast one win away from its first region championship since the 2009 season.

“He was like, ‘Coach, let me be a catalyst tonight.’ So I said, ‘you better show out tonight,’” Wiggins said of his wideout’s performance. “He had a heck of a night, man, I’m proud of him. He caught the ball real well.”

Jackson’s performance helped quarterback Jordan Wiggins through a night where he was sacked several times. The freshman passer still led the Northeast offense to a solid performance, even when he was banged up after taking a shot on one of those pressures.

The Northeast defense was equally impressive, as it limited what had been a potent Dodge County offense to only two touchdowns, both of which came with the help of a short field after Raider miscues. 

The Raiders snagged four interceptions, including a pick six by freshman Jaiden Center that firmly iced the game with less than two minutes left and got a rise out of the Northeast faithful that had traveled to Memorial Stadium.

“I can’t even pick one guy. It’s so many guys making plays on defense,” Wiggins said. “A turnover and a bad snap. Otherwise they don’t score.”

Northeast remains tied atop the Region 2-A Division I standings with the triumph, and it holds the tiebreaker over the Dublin Fighting Irish after defeating them earlier this year. Should the Raiders defeat East Laurens at home next week, they will secure the region title.

“Just want to get to next week and take care of business. You know East Laurens wants to come in and play spoiler,” Wiggins said. “You just have to go back home and finish it.”

It was also Northeast’s first win over Dodge County on the road since 2003 after going 0-3 since then.

“We knew playing on the road they would have the momentum,” Wiggins said. “We wanted to stop it.”

The Raiders wasted no time doing so, electing to receive the opening kickoff instead of the typical deferral. It paid off, as Jackson caught the first of his two scores — a 51-yard bomb from quarterback Jordan Wiggins — to make it 7-0 only two minutes into the contest.

It looked like Northeast could stretch its lead when it picked off Dodge County quarterback Kain Mincey on the Indians’ first drive, but the Raiders failed to capitalize and botched the snap on a punt. Dodge County pounced on the opportunity and scored to tie it, 7-7.

The Raiders got back to work on the ensuing drive, riding a 27-yard catch by Jackson to the red zone before Reginald “Bam” Glover punched it in on the ground from 4 yards out. A missed PAT made it a 13-7 Northeast lead.

From there the two squads traded tedious drives for much of the second quarter. There were oodles of penalties and incompletions that lengthened the game — the teams combined for 30 fouls and 43 incomplete passes on the night — but Dodge County managed to get a drive going just before halftime.

The Raiders made their biggest defensive stand of the game there, stuffing the Indians on two straight run plays from the half-yard line before the clock ran out in the second quarter. The entire Northeast sideline leaped in the air as the horn sounded, thrilled at the stop heading into halftime.

“They were getting the ball coming back out, so we just got it done,” Wiggins said of the key sequence. “We came up with the big play there.”

The Raiders then stripped the ball out on the Indians’ first play of the second half. Though they did not convert the play into points, it foreshadowed Northeast’s suffocating second half performance.

Defensive back and receiver Kortnei Williams, who also had an interception on the night, put Northeast in position for its next score with a 40-plus yard punt return. Tavares Tinsley Jr. reeled in the scoring pass this time, juking his way past defenders after his catch for a 24-yard touchdown to make it 20-7 with six minutes left in the third quarter.

Dodge County stayed in the game for a while after that — the Indians got the crowd back into it when Northeast threw an interception in its own territory; Dodge capitalized on it with a score to make it 20-14 — but could not muster enough offense to make a serious comeback attempt. Mincey was also injured for a significant portion of the second half, giving freshman quarterback Jordan Spady the reins.

Jackson’s second touchdown of the night, a 41-yard catch-and-run on which he shook two Indians out of their cleats, put things almost entirely out of reach right at the end of the third quarter. A few breakout runs by linebacker-turned-tailback Tailen Sampson on Northeast’s last offensive drive more or less sealed the deal with three minutes left, and the pick-six by Center subsequently removed all doubt.

Jackson nearly had a third score on a would-be one-handed grab with about two minutes left but couldn’t snag it. He did not hang his head, though, only showing a wry smile as he left the field.

“I wasn’t really mad, I just thought, ‘Dang, I should’ve had it.’ I make those kind of catches in practice,” the wide receiver said. “I wasn’t worried about it … I was glad we won.”