You can click here to read the game story from Farmington's 42-38 win, and there will be video on the Semoball.com Web site later today (Saturday).

I tried to play the lead of the game story off the old mystery thriller homicide line that says "the butler did it." The special teams did it to Jackson on Friday night as the combination of two long kickoff returns by Farmington's Bryan Krause, three missed extra point kicks, an unsuccessful onside kick late in the game and a bad snap on a punt undermined the Indians' chances to rally for the win. Jackson also had to start its final drive at the 3-yard line as a result of Farmington's kickoff strategy.

Plenty of highlights in this one, as Farmington's explosive attack was countered by Jackson's power running game.

The Indians turned up the defensive heat in the second half with some blitzes from Blake Peiffer, Cole Rodgers and Drew Bucher at key points early in the second half to help Jackson rally from its 30-18 halftime deficit.

The three linebackers were noticeable with their pressure in the second half, after Farmington had ripped through Jackson for four touchdowns in the first half. (And Peiffer put a huge hit on Zachary Oyler in the fourth period to break up a pass.)

Krause, who had a 79-yard TD reception, an 85-yard kick return for a TD and an 87-yard kick return to set up another TD, racked up 187 return yards and 121 receiving yards in the first half. He carried the ball once in the second half on a 6-yard run and injured his ankle.

Zach Hibbits, who completed 19 of 36 passes for 349 yards and three touchdowns (against two interceptions) had other receivers to work with. Nick Baker had eight catches for 107 yards; Taylor Denman had three catches for 58 yards and Zachary Oyler added to his 91 yards rushing (and one TD) by catching two passes in the second half for 32 yards (and one TD).

Jackson switched from a 4-3 to 3-4 defense in the second half with more stunts, and it resulted in five sacks of Hibbits.

The Jackson offense, playing without leading rusher and tailback Adam Zweigart, still had plenty of success in the power-I offense.

Bucher, playing his first game at running back, ripped off a 64-yard run in the first half while accumulating 115 yards. He finished the night with 166 yards on 22 carries.

Mitchell McCulley took over the second half with 92 yards to finish with 106 on 15 carries.

Cole Rodgers found the end zone three times on the night and finished with 41 yards on nine carries.

Including some nifty keepers by quarterback Marcus Harris -- who nearly made connection with Ethan Ruch on Jackson's final offensive play -- Jackson racked up 330 yards rushing to go with 53 yards passing. The Indians had one fumble.

They opened the game with Harris split wide and Ethan Ruch taking direct snaps for a couple running plays.

The Indians opened shaky with a penalty, a timeout to avoid a delay, a third-down intentional grounding and ended up punting from their own 9. But the punt hit a Farmington player and Jackson recovered out at its 33.

Once the ball got into Farmington's hands, the race was on, with the Knights moving down for a field goal, and then answering Jackson's scores with the long TD pass and the kick return to assume a 17-12 lead.

Jackson had two switch kickers at halftime as Indians coach Van Hitt said Morgan Johnson, one of the area's leading kickers with nine extra points and two field goals, lost his confidence with three first-half missed PATs.

Jackson got the spark it needed to rally from a 30-18 halftime deficit when Andy Zeller picked off Hibbits' pass and returned it to the 14 to set up Rodgers' TD run on the next play.

Farmington had two more drives inside Jackson's 10 in the third period but came away empty on fourth down tries.

After one of those drives, Jackson put together a 91-yard, three-run drive with Mitchell McCulley covering the last 45 yards.

The Knights also missed a field goal early in the fourth period when they tried to reclaim the lead after falling behind 31-30.

It looked like Jackson had sealed it with a 37-yard drive capped by Rodgers' 9-yard scoring run. Zeller's kick made it 38-30.

With 5:55 to go and Jackson ahead by eight, one has to be thinking, at the very worst for Jackson, this goes to overtime if Farmington can score and hit a two-point conversion.

But Farmington had the lead exactly 2 1/2 minutes later.

The Knights recovered Jackson's onside kick and marched 49 yards in five plays. Hibbits took advantage of Jackson's aggressiveness with a 7-yard middle screen to Oyler.

Jackson was stopped on its next possession, and the snap sailed over punter Bobby Clark's head. Clark tried to get off a kick but Farmington blocked it and ended up with the ball at Jackson's 10.

Oyler was in the end zone again just two plays later, giving Farmington a 42-38 final margin.

Jackson even had to start the final drive on its own 3 after a well-placed kick by William Knapp could not be returned -- adding to Jackson's special teams woes -- but McCulley got the Indians out of that jam with a 27-yard run on the first play. Bucher added 9- and 5- yard runs, and Marcus Harris passed 10 yards to Tommy Selsor on fourth-and-8 to get Jackson to Farmington's 42.

After a 3-yard run by McCulley with 1:30 remaining, Harris was sacked on the next play and flipped the ball as he was taken down for an intentional grounding penalty.

The next two passes fell incomplete.

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Rodgers, after the game, asked about the special teams play: "It wasn't just the special teams. I missed a tackle at the 10-yard line and the kid went in and scored a touchdown."