October 21, 2022

‘They bent, but they didn’t break’: Hoover football makes enough stops to beat rival Jackson

Peter Holland Jr., Canton Repository

JACKSON TWP. — Hoover High School football coach Brian Baum held his breath in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.

Down by one score, Jackson was on the move against Baum’s defense. And whether it was his defense having one more play in it or Jackson just simply running out of time — or a little bit of both — Baum will take it.

Hoover’s defense held and the Vikings beat their rival 14-7 to close out the regular season.

“I was real proud of our defense,” Baum said.

After Jackson’s defense recovered a Vikings fumble at its own 7-yard line, the Polar Bears showed life. Jackson freshman quarterback Lucas Ecrement helped get the Polar Bears on the move. He made enough big plays to get them in scoring position, but Hoover’s defense came up with a sack by Bryce Roach. Ecrement then scrambled 25 yards into the red zone with three seconds left to play, but it was too late to spike it and stop the clock.

“They bent, but they didn’t break. They made some plays when they needed to,” Baum said of his defense. “Off that turnover, we gave them life.”

Hoover was without its top rusher Luke Roach because of an ankle injury he sustained last week. Cooper Westfall stepped in at tailback and combined with quarterback Carson Dyrlund for 155 yards on the ground. 

“Me and Westfall worked a lot this whole week,” Dyrlund said. “Just practicing our handoffs so we can be in sync. Me and (Luke) Roach have been in sync for a while. We’ve been working on the handoffs a lot, especially last year. We just had to do that a lot this week to prepare for this game.”

Dyrlund, a junior, accounted for both Hoover TDs. The first score was a short quarterback sneak, as the Vikings took a 7-0 lead. Jackson tied the game in the second quarter on an Ethan Lesco TD run and it remained that way into the fourth quarter. In the fourth, Dyrlund connected with Zach Baucher on a game-winning 13-yard TD pass.

Dyrlund completed 9 of 11 passes for 88 yards. 

“He’s doing a job,” Baum said. “He is getting much better. He just got to keep growing as a player. He’s making good reads and giving us the chance to win.”

It was tough enough for the Hoover defense to contain the Polar Bears’ 1,000-yard rusher Jason Davide, who finished with 107 yards and 23 carries. But Ecrement presented another challenge whenever he escaped from the pocket.

“He’s very shifty and we knew that coming in,” Hoover lineman Aiden Sykeny said of the Jackson QB. “He’s done a real good job stepping in for them. He made some good plays. We were really worried about him because he is really fast. It’s kind of hard to find his hips when he is making a juke move. Our defense was really alert about Davide and we did a good job containing them all night.”

Hoover – 7- 0 – 0 – 7 — 14 

Jackson – 0 – 7- 0 – 0 — 7 

H—Dyrlund 1 run (Kish kick) 

J—Lesco 7 run (Wright kick) 

H—Braucher 13 pass from Dyrlund (Kish kick) 

TEAM STATS 

                     HOO —      JCK 

First downs — 14 —      18 

Rushes-Yards — 33-160     —      42-222 

Comp-Att-Int — 9-11-0     —      12-18-0 

Passing Yards — 82 —      123 

Fumbles-Lost — 2-2   —      1-1 

Penalties-Yards — 1-5     —      5-40 

Total yards — 242 —      345 

Records — 7-3, 4-2     —      5-5, 2-4