Almost nobody knows Newport junior Damarco Jackson by his birth name.
On Friday, “Drip” Jackson unleashed a flood of offense on Ludlow – his 205 yards rushing and four touchdowns led the Wildcats to a 44-22 win in the Class A first-round win at Newport Stadium.
Next for the Wildcats: Holy Cross in the second round next week at Thomas More University’s Republic Bank Field.
For Jackson, Friday made up for Ludlow’s 21-12 win on Aug. 21, in which he gained just 22 yards.
“It was nice to get it back,” he said.
Jackson became “Drip” sometime in seventh grade when he showed up with a new t-shirt with the four-letter word.
“It just said ‘Drip,” he said. “I feel like I played a big part, but I couldn’t do it without my linemen.”
Jackson was the major contributor to Newport’s (6-5) 521 yards of offense, but not the only one.
First there was Wildcats quarterback Davae Andrews-Glover’s 168 passing yards that included a 99-yarder to Aiden Miller. (Miller had four catches for 122.)
“I just come out here with confidence, and I put confidence in my team and my wide receivers,” Andrews-Glover said.
Next was Andrews-Glover’s 72 rushing yards and Sean Hurry’s 60.
Thirdly, Newport ran for 353 yards. Add the passing and rushing, and the Wildcats had 62 snaps and 8.4 yards per play to the Panthers 37 plays and a 7.4-yard average.
“We tried a couple different things,” Newport coach Paul Wiggins said. “When you play somebody already, they get a feel on things … We threw a couple different formations out there and tried to give them a couple different looks.”
Finally, there was the Wildcats defense that held Ludlow (6-5) to 37 rushing yards and sacked Panthers quarterback Miller Reed twice.
Reed and Jaylen Stone were also the main reasons the Panthers turned a 22-0 Newport lead into 22-all a little less than four minutes into the third quarter. Reed threw for 239 yards and touchdowns to Andre Englemon Jr. for 99 yards and Stone for 36, and Stone also returned a kick 61 yards for a score.
For a little more than a quarter, it looked like Newport was off to a running-clock wipeout, and not just because Jackson ran up the middle for 36 yards with 8:56 left in the opening quarter.
Reed’s 52-yard toss to Landen Yates set up first-and-goal at Newport’s 2 – where the drive stalled because Ludlow gained just a yard on four carries into the line.
The next play: Andrews-Glover to Miller for 99 yards, who had at least two steps on the Ludlow secondary. Jackson’s 11-yard run set up Andrews-Glover’s 1-yard plunge.
The score: Wildcats, 22-0, 11:37 to go in the second.
“Honestly, I thought we were going to run the clock,” Wiggins said.
From there, however, long Ludlow’s passes and a touch of trickery.
First, the Panthers matched Newport’s 99-yard touchdown when Reed found Englemon with 17.8 seconds before halftime.
Then, the dash of deception. Ryland Yates took the second-half kickoff to the Panthers’ 39, where he handed off to Stone, who ran the final 61 yards.
And after Stone wrestled Reed’s pass from two Newport defenders for 36 yards – 22-22, with 8:05 to go in the third.
“Well, we made a big play before half,” Ludlow coach Woody McMillen said. “We just said, ‘Leave everything on the field … make sure your tanks are empty. At the end of the night, I think the kids played hard.”
Thing was, Ludlow had no answer for Jackson – he ran for eight, 55 and 11 yards.
“They had a nice kickoff return, that put them in good position,” McMillen said. “And they started running the ball on us and gashing us up front. Their size really was a factor.”
Wildcats 44, Panthers 22
LUDLOW —0-7-15-0 — 22
NEWPORT —14-8-14-8 — 44
First quarter
N-Demarco Jackson 36 run (pass failed), 8:56
N-Aiden Miller 99 pass from Davae Andrews-Glover (Jackson run), 4:57
Second quarter
N-Andrews-Glover 1 run (Sean Hurry run), 11:37
L-Andre Englemon Jr. 99 pass from Miller Reed (Finn McMillan kick), 0:17
Third quarter
L-Jaylen Stone 61 kickoff return (McMillan kick), 11:44
L-Stone 36 pass from Reed (Stone run), 8:06
N-Jackson 8 run (run failed), 7:11
N-Jackson 55 run (Elijah Brandt pass from Andrews-Glover), 3:01
Fourth quarter
N-Jackson 11 run (Hurry run), 4:48
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Ludlow 239 (Reed 10-18-239-2 TD), Newport 168 (Andrews-Glover 10-15-1 TD)
Rushing Yards: Ludlow 37 (3-3, Reed 16-34); Newport 353 (Jackson 22-205, Andrews-Glover 12-72, Harrington 1-7, Okunuga 1-9, Hurry 11-60)
Receiving: Ludlow 239 (Stone 4-66, Englemon Jr. 2-106, L. Yates 1-52, Rice 2-17, Petelo 1-(minus-2)), Newport 168 (Jackson 1-(minus-1), Brandt 2-29, Harrington 4-18, Miller 4-122)
Turnovers: Ludlow 3, Newport 1
Penalties: Ludlow 6-58, Newport 12-110
Records: Ludlow 6-5, Newport 6-5.
