High school football: St. Paul Central bottles up Jeff Jones, Minneapolis Washburn

St. Paul Central bottled up the state's top recruit, running back Jeff Jones, and beat Minneapolis Washburn 47-25 at James Griffin Stadium on Saturday.

Jones, who stuffed the stat sheet with 16 touchdowns in the first three games of the season, was limited to 17 rushing yards by the Minutemen. He added 63 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown but never really was a factor.

"We've been talking all week that we wanted to be like a pack of wolves on the field," Central coach Scott Howell said. "We knew what (Jones) could do, so we wanted 11 guys to the ball at all times, and our guys did a great job doing that."

Jones, a target on Gophers recruiting boards, injured his hip on the opening kickoff of the second half. He played one more series, then was held out for the rest of the game.

"I didn't want to see him injure it any more," Washburn coach Giovan Jenkins said. "I made the decision to keep him out because his career and everything that comes after is way more important than this one game."

Jenkins added his team didn't make enough plays.

That wasn't a problem for Central (4-0). The Minutemen opened an early lead and never looked back.

Garrett Gardner and Jakobi Jackson scored first-quarter touchdowns, but that was only the start for Central. Quarterback Felix Taylor Jr. burned the Washburn secondary all afternoon. His 30-yard touchdown pass to Rayeon Williams pushed the score to 21-0.

That connection was one of a few big plays for Taylor, who finished 8 for 10 for 235 passing yards and two touchdowns.

"It was a great team effort," he said. "This is one the first times our offense has really stepped up and played as well as our defense."

Washburn (3-1) struggled to put together drives for most of the first half, but it broke through in the second quarter when Jones, ineffective on the ground, finally made his presence felt with a 22-yard touchdown reception to make it 21-7.

That was as close as the Millers got, with Gardner scoring three consecutive Central touchdowns on running plays. He finished with four touchdowns and deferred a lot of the credit to his offensive line.

"That was the main reason I scored all those touchdowns," he said. "They came to practice this week and were focused, and it showed."

"It was a good chance for us to see where we were at," Howell said, "and we put all aspects of the game together. It was a great performance."

Source: http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_24148633/high-school-football-st-paul-central-bottles-up?source=rss

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