It’s rare to find a quarterback who can toss three touchdowns under center and also tally three interceptions on defense. But despite his surname, J.Z. George’s Jordun Normal is anything but your average signal caller.
The Jaguars’ do-it-all junior came up big on both sides of the ball to secure a 44-8 win against visiting Bruce and send J.Z. George (5-4) to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
There was no rain as feared in Friday night’s forecast, but first-year coach Rusty Smith received his inaugural gatorade shower on the sidelines.
“I’m feeling good and cold,” Smith said as his squad celebrated at Farris Jenkins Field. Nothing could dampen the Jaguars’ mood.
“It’s just huge for these guys to make the playoffs,” Smith added. “That was my goal coming in: If I could make the playoffs, I feel like we’re successful. But we’re going to keep on climbing.”
After J.Z. George started the game with an unsuccessful onside kick, Wil’Tavious Williams stalled the Trojans’ opening drive with a tackle for loss. Normal marched the Jaguars down field and struck first on a 20-yard touchdown pass to his favorite target, junior receiver D’Anthony McGlothan.
J.Z. George tailback Jacob Johnson lost a fumble on the next drive, but Normal got the ball right back off an interception and found McGlothan for a 72-yard touchdown pass to put the Jaguars up 12-0. McGlothan had two more long touchdowns wiped off the board due to block-in-the-back penalties in the second quarter.
Johnson bounced back from his turnover and rushed for a score just before halftime to make it 18-0 headed into the locker room.
Following the intermission, J.Z. George emerged sloppy and allowed Bruce (2-7) to trim its deficit to 18-8 in the third quarter. But that’s the closest the Trojans got as the Jaguars cleaned up their penalties to pile on 26 points in the fourth quarter and seal the blowout victory.
“We started off good, something we hadn’t been doing,” Smith said. “We’ve been a second-half team. Then we got into the second half and looked how we’ve been looking in the first half. Third quarter, real sloppy. We’ve got a lot to work on, but I’m going to let them enjoy this.”
Normal returned his third interception of the evening 25 yards for a pick six in the fourth quarter. Johnson finished with seven carries for 144 yards and three touchdowns, including a pair of 62-yard scampers. McGlothan totaled 166 yards combined rushing and receiving.
The Jaguars face another Region 2-2A foe when they go to Calhoun City next week for their regular-season finale.
• Contact Riley Overend at 581-7237 or roverend@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow @OverendOut on Twitter.
