Vandals’ historic season ends
One of the best seasons in the history of the football program at Vandalia Community High School came to an end on Saturday, but not before this year’s Vandals set many new standards, both as a team and individually.
The school’s first football team to advance to the third round of the state playoffs jumped out to an early lead, but couldn’t hold off one of the best teams in Class 3A this year.
The Vandals, who were seeded No. 15 in the 3A southern bracket, led 14-0 with only 3½ minutes elapsed in Saturday’s home playoff game, and were up 20-7 early in the second quarter over the No. 3 seed
But, Anna-Jonesboro, which now stands at 12-0, advanced to the semifinals against Pleasant Plains (No. 16), in the Class 3A by outscoring Vandalia 42-21 from the 9:10 mark of the second quarter.
“Anna-Jonesboro is a heck of a team,” Vandals coach Jason Clay said.
“We got out on them early and they adjusted,” he said. “They came back and found ways to move the ball.
“We were trying to adjust, but it’s hard – they’ve got three bona fide threats that stretched (our) defense pretty thin,” Clay said.
“It’s a great offense when you run it well, and they obviously do.
“We were trying to keep up,” he said. “Our kids made a lot of plays, we had special plays.”
Saturday’s playoff game got started with two major penalties and Vandalia’s Trevor Smalls showing that he’s one of the top running backs in the state and in Vandals history.
Vandalia advanced to the AJ 40-yard line, but got moved back 15 yards on a holding penalty. But they got yardage back on a facemask penalty called on the Wildcats.
On fourth down and 2 from the Vandalia 35-yard line, Smalls broke outside and up the sideline to put the Vandals up 6-0. Ethan Bayles added the extra-point kick.
Less than two minutes later, Smalls scored on a 71-yard run and Bayles converted to give Vandalia a 14-0 lead.
The Wildcats narrowed the lead to seven points when Bryce Osman scored on a 16-yard run a little more than 30 seconds left in the first quarter.
Three minutes into the second quarter, Vandalia went up 20-7 when Smalls scored his third touchdown of the game, from 3 yards out.
Anna-Jonesboro responded with a 30-yard pass play with 7:42 left in the half, then, recovering a Vandals fumble on the ensuing kickoff, took the lead, 21-20, on a 6-yard run by Osman and extra-point kick with a little more than four minutes left in the half.
After the Wildcats scored on a 45-yard run with 9:19 left in the third quarter, Vandalia got the V-J lead back to just one when quarterback Matthew Wells connected with Marcus Zimmerman – who was battling severe cramps in the second half – on a 72-yard pass play at the 8:43 mark.
After Anna-Jonesboro increased its lead back to eight, it was again Zimmerman who responded, returning the kickoff from the Vandals’ 8-yard line for his second touchdown of the game.
Two more scores put the Wildcats up by 16, 49-33, and Smalls appeared to have brought the Vandals back within a score, but his 54-yard touchdown run was called back on a blocking-in-the-back penalty.
But a 27-yard pass play from Wells to Blake Morrison and two-point conversion run by Smalls made it 49-41.
The Wildcats sealed the win with a 24-yard scoring run with 1:05 left in the game.
As they had all year, the Vandals fought back when they fell behind.
“These kids aren’t going to give up,” Clay said. “There’s no quit in them.”
The leaders of this year’s squad included Zimmerman and 12 other seniors who played their final game as Vandals on Saturday.
“This is a special group,” Clay said.
“Marcus, after about week two or three of his freshman year, started every game, probably played more games than anybody in the history of our program.
“He has more touchdown catches, more receiving yards … he has all of the records,” he said.
“You’ve also got guys who didn’t play much as juniors who were huge contributors this year,” Clay said. “You’ve got guys who were three-year starters, offensive-line guys, kind of unsung heroes.
“It’s a group of 13 kids that is going to be hard to replace,” Clay said.
“We’ve got good numbers in our underclasses, and we feel good about that, but these guys have been playing a lot. A lot started as sophomores, and we kind of took our lumps with them.
“But it lead to this special season,” Clay said.
Among those coming back next year is Smalls, who also set some new school records this year.
“He’s an explosive player,” Clay said. “He’s pretty special – (I’m) glad we got him back (next year).
“He went over 2,000 yards this year, and you can see why – he’s got speed, power.
“That (touchdown) run that got called back was one of the most incredible runs I’ve ever seen in my life,” Clay said.
In his postgame talk on the field, Clay told all of his players that they had accomplished something big.
“You pushed this program to the next level,” he said.
Rushing – 27 carries for 227 yards and three touchdowns. Smalls 21 carries/214 yards, three touchdowns; Wells 4/19 yards; Zimmerman 1/10 yards; Ledbetter 1/-16.
Passing – Wells 10/23, two touchdowns, interception.
Receiving – Zimmerman 5/155 yards, touchdown; Smalls 2/28; Morrison 2/37, touchdown; Casey 1/20.
Defense – Zimmerman 4 unassisted tackles/1 assisted, interception; Ritchey 4/0; Kaiser 1/0; Bayles 2/2; Smock 6/2, tackle for loss; Boyd 8/8; Garrett 10/3, tackle for loss; Smalls 4/0, tackle for loss; McNary 9/1; Lott 1/0; Ferguson 1/0; Ulmer 4/1; Boren 0/1; Enlow 2/4; Roman 4/1; Stanley 1/4; Taylor 3/2; Isaiah 1/0.
Season statistics
Rushing – 3,149 yards and 46 touchdowns on 386 carries. Smalls 234/2,269, 31 touchdowns; Wells 67/289, five touchdowns; Zimmerman 11/163, two touchdowns; Garrett 11/140, three touchdowns; Ferguson 18/89, touchdown; McNary 13/68, touchdown; Ritchey 9/52, touchdown; Mouser 3/30, touchdown; Largent 7/27; Taylor 4/22; Isaiah 1/15, touchdown; Boyd 2/7; K. Phillips 1/1; Kaiser 1/0.
Passing – 107 for 190, 2,148 yards, 25 touchdowns, 10 interceptions. Wells 104/185, 2,016 yards, 23 touchdowns, 10 interceptions; Smalls 2/3, 115 yards, two touchdowns; Casey 1/2, 17 yards.
Receiving – Zimmerman 46/1,301, 16 touchdowns; Morrison 19/285, five touchdowns; Smalls 11/173, touchdown; Ritchey 8/75; Ferguson 7/113, three touchdowns; Casey 6/94; Slater 5/73; McNary 5/44.
Defense – Boyd 74 solos tackles, 38 assisted, two sacks, forced fumble, eight tackles for loss; McNary 75/27, 15 tackles for loss, two interceptions, sack, fumble recovery; Garrett 62/20, interception, seven tackles for loss; Zimmerman 63/15, 10 tackles for loss, two interceptions, 2½ sacks, four forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries; Smock 34/29, seven tackles for loss, 3½ sacks; Ritchey 32/14; Smalls 42/1, interception, forced fumble, tackle for loss; Taylor 19/17, two tackles for loss, two sacks; Stanley 21/16, nine tackles for loss; C. Phillips 24/7, interception; Ulmer 15/9, two tackles for loss; Ledbetter 10/10, 2½ sacks; Bayles 11/7, two tackles for loss; Roman 13/4, three sacks, tackle for loss, forced fumble; Largent 8/7; Lott 11/2; Kaiser 9/3, tackle for loss; Durbin 8/4, three tackles for loss; Enlow 6/6, two sacks, tackle for loss; Ferguson 7/2; Boren 3/3; Morrison 4/1; Plunkett 2/1; Slater 2/0; Isaiah 2/0; Lotz 1/0; Ess 1/0, tackle for loss; Carroll 0/1; Cox 0/1.