'Action' Jackson lifts Novi to 1st win
Brad Emmons
September 20, 2014
Reprinted with permission of the Novi News
After three tough losses to start the 2014 season, Novi's football team found a way to win Friday night by upending host Salem, 30-22, in a KLAA Central Division game at Plymouth High School.
Junior running back Emanuel Jackson helped orchestrate the victory with 228 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns as the Wildcats improved to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the Central.
The 6-foot, 163-pound Jackson finished with a team-best 121 yards on 18 carries, including TD runs of 13, 26 and 8 yards. He also caught five passes for 102 yards, including 50-yard TD reception from sophomore quarterback Alec Bageris with 1:39 left in the third quarter to give Novi a 24-15 lead.
"Emanuel had a real nice game for us running the ball and catching it," Novi coach Jeff Burnside said. "He's a talented kid, so we tried to get him the ball as many times as we could and tried to get it to him as many ways as we could. He was running hard tonight so we just latched onto him and let him go."
Bageris, making his second straight straight for injured senior starter Rohit Mogalayapalli, turned in another solid effort hitting 12-of-18 passes for 156 yards and a TD.
"He had a couple of nice plays," Burnside said of the 6-2, 160-pound signal caller. "He had some young moments, too, but you can't ask more out of a young kid that is coming on. He came in last week and didn't know he was starting until Thursday (31-28 loss to Livonia Stevenson). He didn't know until then, but this week he had full reps. We saw some difficult things on defense this week and he hung in there tough, put the ball where it needed to be and flat-out made some plays at times. He's an exceptional kid."
Salem (0-4, 0-2) led 15-14 at halftime thanks to 1-yard TD runs by Alex Nicholson and Johnny Perko, along with a 31-yard field goal by John Kwiecinski with only seven seconds left.
Novi's Kent Maidens answered with a 21-yard field goal to cap a 13-play, 71-yard drive with 5:30 left in the third period to put the Wildcats ahead to stay, 17-15.
Jackson's 50-yard TD reception from Bageris with 1:39 left in the third and his 8-yard TD run with 11:54 in the fourth gave Novi a 30-15 advantage.
But Salem refused to fold getting an 81-yard TD pass from Nicholson to Jacob Miller with only 1:11 remaining. Kwiecinski's PAT made it a one-score deficit at 30-22.
But the Wildcats' senior defensive lineman Dylan Haggard recovered the ensuing onside kick to preserve the victory.
"Dylan Haggard, that was awesome," Burnside said. "He stepped in there, saw that ball and there was no hesitation whatsover. He grabbed that and we knew we just had to take a couple of kneel-downs and get out of there."
Salem outgained the Wildcats in total offense, 421-274, as Nicholson hit 13-of-27 passes for 242 yards.
"Salem's a tough team and they've always played us tough," Burnside said. "Their record doesn't mean anything. They've always played us tough, especially down at their place. That grass field (at Plymouth) and that early kickoff time (6:30 p.m.) is always tough. They have tough kids there."
Defensively, senior Jalen Ward led Novi with 10 total tackles, including nine solo tackles. Patrick Wojtylo added five tackles, while Caleb Wright added four solo tackles with a sack.
Devontez Jones also had an interception.
"The defense made a couple of very good stops for us tonight, got us on some short fields and we were able to score," Burnside said. "We didn't have to go real far to score tonight. Only a couple times had to go the length of the field."
Burnside said Mogalayapalli could return to the lineup this week after being injured in practice on Sept. 11.
"It depends how his knee responds," the Novi coach said. "I've always been a guy who kind of likes a two-quarterback system anyway. Rohit does some nice things. There were some throws tonight that he could have made that Alec didn't. And there's probably some plays that Alec could have made that Ro' wouldn't have. They're a good complement. They're pretty good in the offensive scheme, just have different strengths. You've got to call the game a little different for Alec than what you do for Ro', but not that different."