Jasiah Watson had already scored one touchdown, but he wasn’t satisfied.

Set up at the Yorkville 11-yard line on the first play of the second quarter, the Oswego East senior took the handoff from his quarterback, started towards the middle of the field, and bounced it to the outside.

“I saw the defender on his toes because I had been dominant all night,” Watson said. “I stepped to the side, stiff-armed and took it to the crib.”

Watson would answer three house calls for Oswego East on Friday night, carrying the ball 39 times for 253 yards along the way, propelling the Wolves to a 28-17 victory over previously undefeated Yorkville.

Oswego East (6-1, 2-1 Southwest Prairie Conference West) controlled the clock from start to finish, authoring three drives that lasted over six minutes and 30 seconds, and a 7:30 drive to ice the game.

“We came in and did what we talked about doing all week,” Oswego East coach Tyson LeBlanc said. “We challenged our guys up front, and they answered the challenge.”

On the Wolves’ first possession, quarterback Niko Villacci and Watson drove the ball 73 yards on 16 plays, with all but 16 of those yards coming from Watson.

“He’s the complete dude,” LeBlanc said. “He can run between the tackles, he can bounce it to the outside, he’s got enough speed, and he finishes runs.”

Oswego East wasn’t done there, forcing Yorkville quarterback Jack Beetham into an interception that set the Wolves up at the Yorkville 26. After a Watson run of 15 to get the Wolves to the 11, Watson bounced a run to the outside on his second touchdown.

“My offensive line made it so much easier on me,” Watson said. “I saw the gaps, and they were there every single time.”

After trailing 14-0, Yorkville (6-1, 2-1 SPC West) put together a pair of scoring drives to close out the first half.

Following the interception, the Foxes turned to the ground game, using a trio of runners on an 11-play 80-yard touchdown drive. TJ Harland set the table for the Foxes with runs of 17, 11 and two runs of six yards on the drive to get them to the Oswego East 10. Gavin Geegan, however, carried the rock the final 10 yards to get the Foxes on the board.

Harland finished the night with 72 yards on the ground.

“He has really good patience,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said of Harland. “He’s got great leverage, and he’s really tough to bring down. That’s a great combination for a good tailback.”

After a one-yard touchdown run by Villacci, set up by a 37-yard catch and run by Lincoln Ijams, the Foxes took possession at their own 27 with just 1:20 on the clock in the first half.

Beetham orchestrated a 9-play, 61-yard drive to get the Foxes into field goal range with just seconds on the clock.

“Jack can make any throw he wants to make,” McGuire said. “When our backs are against the wall, we play our best. We’ve just got to start that way.”

Beetham finished the night 14 of 22 passing for 227 yards through the air with a touchdown and an interception.

The two teams only scored a touchdown each in the second half, but Oswego East dominated the clock. Going into its last drive of the game, Yorkville had only run 12 plays in the second half.

The reason? The man referred to affectionately by his teammates as “Juice:” Jasiah Watson.

Juice carried the ball 20 times for 143 in the second half alone, putting the cherry on top of the victory with a four-yard touchdown to cap off a drive that bled 7:30 from the fourth quarter clock, leaving the Foxes with only 2:50 left to attempt a comeback from down three scores.

“I’ve always felt like ‘OE’ is home to me,” Watson said. “We’re a very good program.”

After a tough loss two weeks ago, Oswego East has bounced back in a big way, rattling off two big wins: a blowout last week and a statement victory tonight to tie for the lead atop the SPC West.

“The Bolingbrook game was a wake-up call,” LeBlanc said. “We got to smelling ourselves a little bit.”

His stud running back believes that Oswego East got away from its brand of football in that loss, but has gotten back to it over the last two weeks.

“We’ve capitalized off of that loss,” Watson said. “It only made us better.” 

[ Photo store: Yorkville at Oswego East ]