Anna-Jonesboro @ Nashville - Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference - Mississippi Division

Hornets roll in league opener
Nashville handles Anna-Jonesboro, 47-22; improves to 3-1 overall

09-17-2021
BY JACK BULLOCK
NASHVILLE - The Nashville Hornets won their first outright SIRR Mississippi Division title since 1998 last spring and are wanting to go back-to-back this fall.

Coach Stephen Kozuszek saw his 2021-22 Hornets open up league play with a resounding statement.

Nashville dominated Anna-Jonesboro at home Friday night, cruising to a 47-22 victory at home.

The Hornets racked up over 200 yards of offense in the first half and led 47-0 at intermission while improving to 3-1 on the season and 1-0 in the division.

Before Anna-Jonesboro and head coach Brett Detering and his Wildcats knew what hit them, they had given up four first quarter touchdowns and trailed 28-0.

A-J is now 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the Mississippi Division after the loss.

Nashville's 6-foot-5, 210 senior quarterback Kolton Gajewski ran for 76 yards rushing on just six carries while connecting on 4-of-5 passes for 69 more yards.

He accounted for four of the touchdowns, three rushing and one passing, all in the first half.

Connor Gladson, a 5-foot-11, 180 senior running back, led the rushing attack with 148 yards on 11 carries while also producing a touchdown run.

Senior running back Ian Blazier also got in on the fun with five rushing attempts for 61 yards and a TD.

Six-foot-three senior all-state wide receiver Isaac Turner caught a pair of passes, including a touchdown pass from Gajewski in the first half onslaught.

Anna-Jonesboro senior quarterback Gavin Osman accounted for 97 yards for the Wildcats, 65 rushing and 32 passing.

Senior running back Zach Stokes scored two second half touchdowns, one rushing and one on a reception.

Those two accounted for nearly 2/3rds of the A-J offense, with nearly all of it coming after they trailed by seven touchdowns.

Nashville won the toss and elected to take the ball to open the game and it took just two minutes to score for the first time.

The seven play, 68 yard drive produced the first score with Gajewski finishing the march with a 10 yard touchdown run.

The PAT was good and made it 7-0 Hornets.

On just the second play from scrimmage, Anna-Jonesboro fumbled and Nashville recovered on the Wildcats' 47 yard line.

With Gajewski and Gladson moving the ball, Nashville quickly got into Red Zone where Blazier finished the drive with a seven yard run to paydirt.

The extra point made it 14-0 Hornets with 7:48 left.

Anna-Jonesboro managed to put together a couple of first downs on its next possession but it ended as they were stopped on a fourth and one at the Nashville 36 yard line.

The Hornets, despite a 15 yard penalty that put them at first and 25, quickly moved down the field for more points.

A Blazier 22 yard run was followed by a Gajewski nine yard scamper, a 15 yard pass to Turner and then consecutive rushing attempts by Gajewski, the second one went for 32 yards for his second touchdown of the game.

Another PAT made it 21-0 Nashville with 1:40 left in the first quarter.

Again the Nashville defense held A-J in check, forcing a Wildcats' punt that put the Hornets in business at their own 44.

It took just one play to add to the first quarter Anna-Jonesboro blues.

Gladson took a hand-off and went 56 yards for yet another touchdown with the clock stopping at :00.2 left in the opening stanza.

Another PAT by sophomore Eduardo Garibay made it 28-0 Nashville.

Coach Detering's club fared no better in the second quarter as they were forced to punt from the 31 yard line.

“Defensively we told them that we can't let Anna-Jonesboro get two or three yards a pop. I thought we owned the line of scrimmage. Obviously if you get up big you take them out of their game plan,” said Coach Kozuszek.

Turner returned the punt 22 yard to the A-J 31.

Five plays later, Gajewski added another score to his night with a nine yard run up the middle.

Another point after was good for a 35-0 lead with 7:36 remaining in the half.

It should be noted the defensive effort by the Hornets as A-J never got anything going in the first half.

“Credit our offense for executing the way that they did. We didn't feel like we had to throw it because their played four defensive backs for the whole first half,” said Coach Kozuszek. “Luckily we were able to execute in the run game for positive yardage.”

Nashville again stopped the Wildcats on the next possession by the visitors, taking over on downs at the A-J 45.

The Hornets Ben Reid, a senior wide receiver, got in on the action with a 10 yard run which was followed by yet another Gladson run up the gut.

Gajewski hooked up with Turner on a 32 yard pass for yet another score.

Garibay missed the PAT but the Hornets led 41-0 with 4:37 to go in the second quarter.

As if things weren't bad enough for Anna-Jonesboro, the Wildcats couldn't handle the next kickoff, fumbling the ball at the 35 where Blazier recovered for the Hornets.

On a third and nine with the ball on the A-J 15, Gajewski ran to the left behind his blockers and reached the end zone.

Although there was another missed PAT, Nashville led 47-0 with 2:52 left in the half.

“We are blessed with good athletes and that's for sure. What's great about them is that they can do a bunch of different things,” said Coach Kozuszek. “When you are diverse like we are with can get creative with things on offense.”

The Wildcats managed to pick up one first down but the half ended at their own 41 yard line.

Against mostly Nashville reserves, Anna-Jonesboro managed to make the score more respectable in the second half.

The Wildcats scored three touchdowns with the mercy rule in effect with a continuous clock in the final two quarters.

Stokes scored on a 30 yard touchdown run, Osman found Stokes for a 24 yard score and sophomore running back Tyler Cunningham scored on a one-yard run.

A two-point conversion on pass from reserve sophomore quarterback Payton Denny to sophomore wide receiver Evan Hall closed the scoring.

Next week Anna-Jonesboro will play host to Carterville on Friday night.

The Lions also won on Friday night, beating DuQuoin 28-26 at home to improve to 3-1 overall, 1-0 in the Mississippi.

Nashville will travel to Alton Marquette to play the 0-4 Explorers on Friday night.

“We told them (the kids) that we couldn't get behind in the conference race and start 0-1. You really feel like you are behind the 8-ball the rest of the way. I'm really proud of our effort. I thought we were really physical on the line of scrimmage,” said Coach Kozuszek. “In our early loss to Freeburg we had a lot of negative plays on offense that really killed us and put is in bad down and distance situations. We didn't have that at all tonight. It was a key that we got out to a two-score lead early.”