Staff photo / Brian Yauger Lowellville quarterback Michael Ballone lofts a pass as he’s pressured by Jackson-Milton’s Joey Zayas. The Rockets topped their visitors 35-14.

LOWELLVILLE — In a battle of 6-1 teams atop the MVAC, it was the high-flying Lowellville Rockets who were left standing, dispatching Jackson-Milton 35-14.

“I was happy with all three phases of the game,” Rockets coach Andrew Mamula said. “I thought defensively we played well. We had a couple lapses on drives, we over-pursued a little bit. Offensively. I thought we were explosive. We had a lot of big plays, multiple guys contributing and on special teams recovered some onside kicks and we played sound. I was happy with all three phases.

“That’s a tough team. They’ve got tough kids, they’re well coached.”

After getting stopped on its first drive, Lowellville responded on the second by driving down the field and capping it off with a shovel pass from Michael Ballone to Braylen Dabney. Dabney wasted no time, taking it 37 yards to the house to put the Rockets up 7-0.

Lowellville did it again their next time with the ball, this time to the tune of an 8-yard pass to Santino Rivera-Ocasio, turning a 14-point swing in less than three minutes.

Late in the first half, Jackson-Milton cut into the lead with Keegan White bulldozing his way through the Rocket defense for a 19-yard score.

The Rockets added one more score before the break, with Ballone and Bruce Brenner connecting on a 42-yard pass.

“He’s a kid that’s come on in the last couple of weeks,” Mamula said. “He joined the team late but he’s an explosive kid. It’s one of those where we’re trying to get him in (the game as much as we can) because of how explosive he is.”

Lowellville kicked off the fourth quarter capitalizing on its third quarter drive, as Rivera-Ocasio scored his second touchdown of the night, this time an 8-yard run.

The Rockets closed out the night with one last touchdown, a 46-yard touchdown by Brenner. Brenner weaved through traffic on the 3rd and 20 catch and run to help Lowellville reach the 35-point mark.

While able to move the ball in spurts, Jackson-Milton wasn’t able to get any real momentum on the offensive side of the ball.

White was able to find the endzone again for the Blue Jays, this time rushing in from 17-yards out. But aside from those two runs from White, the normally potent Jackson-Milton offense was held in check.

“The penalties really deterred a lot of our drives. We had some penalties early on, and then later we had silly ones and those hurt drives,” Blue Jays coach Nate Brode said. “You go from 3rd and 3 to 3rd and a long eight, that’s a whole different play call.

“We played not our best game tonight and credit to Lowellville. They put us in these positions to not block well, not tackle well and not defend well. They put the whole game plan together on special teams as well and they were the better team today.”

As the regular season winds down, Jackson-Milton (6-2) travels to Lake County to take on the Fairport Harbor Skippers in Week 9.

Lowellville aims to keep things going on the road against Waterloo. Despite the difference in records, the Rockets know not to look past any opponent.

On their last trip to Atwater, Lowellville just squeaked by the Vikings, so expect the Rockets to be ready to go this time around.

“Last time we went up there, we almost lost, and it was one of those where we felt like we were the better team, but they didn’t care,” Mamula said. “The kids are going to play hard. It’s probably going to be their senior night, so we’ve got to be ready to play.”