Jackson-led Southmoreland gets statement win against Ringgold

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Friday, September 19, 2025 | 11:08 PM

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When it comes to his football team, first-year Southmoreland coach Dustin Shoaf often says he wants all of the arrows pointing in the same direction.

On Friday night, they were pointing at stud sophomore defensive end Jackson Mickens, who was a wrecking ball against upstart Ringgold.

Mickens had three sacks, an interception return for a touchdown and a rushing TD to power the unbeaten Scotties, who made a statement defensively, to a 28-7 victory over Ringgold at Russ Grimm Field.

“We want our identity to be physical,” Mickens said. “Play fast and get 11 hats to the ball. Keep coming and don’t quit.”

Shoaf called it a team effort, acknowledging Mickens’ play but also underscoring the play of the linemen and linebackers.

“If we’re not getting four, five, six guys providing pressure, it doesn’t get filtered out to Jackson,” Shoaf said. “Our defense really did some good things. Our guys were flying around and making plays.”

Averyon Darnell rushed for 89 yards, Liam Smith made a pair of field goals and Ty Whoric also had an interception for Southmoreland (5-0), which continued its best start since 2019.

The Scotties stopped Ringgold (3-2) on downs four times and scored 21 unanswered points.

The Rams, who had 61, 40 and 33 points in wins, were held to a season low for points.

While the defense was making splash plays, the offense was churning out yardage on the ground and finishing drives. The Scotties were stopped once on fourth down. They punted four times.

First-year quarterback Dawson Wolfe threw for 79 yards and ran for 29 and a score, bulldozing defenders for tough yards. He also had a fumble recovery.

Mickens, who has NCAA Division I scholarship offers from Sacramento State, Miami (Ohio) and Akron, rushed for 65 yards.

His exclamation point came with 4 minutes, 5 seconds to play when he broke through the line, tipped a pass to himself and rumbled 32 yards for a pick-6.

Last week, he had a blocked punt for a score.

“I saw the back flair out like we watched on film,” Mickens said. “All season I have been getting my hands up. As soon as I tipped it, I said go get it and I was off to the races.”

The teams were deadlocked after a hard-hitting first half.

After Ringgold drove deep into Scotties territory and missed a field goal and then turned the ball over on downs — Mickens thwarted that drive with a 10-yard sack —Southmoreland opened the scoring.

A 28-yard pass from Wolfe to Stanley Betters set up a 9-yard touchdown run by Wolfe for a 7-0 lead.

Ringgold responded to tie it as Dennis Hawkins zipped a 57-yard pass to Demetri Lowe to the Scotties’ 10.

Hawkins finished 9 of 20 for 131 yards and an interception. Lowe caught eight passes for 105 yards for the Rams, who had a three-game winning streak snapped.

Last year, they were a 2-8 and broke a 27-game losing streak.

“We got away from the running game, that’s 100 percent on me,” Ringgold coach Rob Heller said. “We have the leading rusher in the WPIAL, and we didn’t use him.”

Amoni Ward only ran six times for 6 yards.

After a touchdown was negated by penalty, Hawkins dashed left and ran 20 yards for a score to make it 7-7 with 9:02 left in the first half.

Southmoreland took the lead on its first drive out of the break. After a 35-yard run by Darnell and a 19-yard run by Mickens, Wolfe pushed it in from the 1.

Mickens added the 2-point run to give the Scotties a 15-7 lead.

Liam Smith connected on a 26-yard field goal late in the third to extend the advantage to 18-7.

He added a 33-yard field goal in the fourth to make it 21-7.

Linebacker Jake Hull led Southmoreland with nine tackles, Stanley Chapman and Darnell added six each, and Luke Stinnett also was disruptive on defense.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Ringgold, Southmoreland