A year ago, Jackson Cummings limped and labored through a trying junior season. His feet and legs hurt as fatigue from being a year-round athlete and a full academic load wore on him.
This fall? Healthy, fit and motivated – and leading the charge for one of the Sac-Joaquin Section's emerging programs of 2009.
Cummings rushed for 128 yards and scored on two short runs, including the game winner midway through the fourth quarter as No. 2 Rocklin High School sweated out a 24-21 triumph over No. 5 Del Oro in your typical white-knuckle Sierra Foothill League showdown Friday night.
On senior night at Rocklin, the Thunder continued its dream season by clinching the program's first SFL championship, and fittingly, it was the leading senior who set the tone. Cummings, a muscled 5-foot-8 tailback, is as revered on campus for his academic and leadership prowess as he is as an athlete.
Cummings has a 4.5 grade-point average with advanced placement courses in subjects such as calculus. He is generating Ivy League interest (his parents are Northwestern graduates, so you can imagine studies are paramount in that household).
And Cummings has the admiration of his opponent Bryce Pratt, Del Oro's gritty tailback who churned for 122 tough rushing yards and scored on runs of 11 and two yards in the second half. Like any runner with class, he appreciates his counterpart.
"He's a great guy, a great player and he's a guy with good character," Pratt said.
An overflow crowd jammed in and witnessed a game expected to be a battle to the end. Rocklin moves to 9-0 (4-0 league) for the first time, and now has three signature victories this season, beating then-No. 2 Nevada Union, then-No. 3 Granite Bay and now Del Oro.
All the while, Rocklin has clearly established itself as a legitimate threat in the Division II playoffs. Del Oro (7-2, 2-2), meanwhile, is suddenly reeling, having lost two in a row.
Rocklin also features a poised junior quarterback in Jimmy Laughrea, who ran for a one-yard touchdown on fourth and goal. To a man, the Rocklin players knew this was their golden chance to seize the moment.
"It's our chance," Rocklin coach Greg Benzel said before the game. "A lot of these kids know each other, Del Oro's a great team, and it's a pretty intense rivalry. We're in a good spot. Our guys have to play championship football."
They did, including the defense, which came up with a fourth-and-10 stand with Del Oro on the Rocklin 17. A pass to Freddie Cargile in the end zone fell incomplete with a minute left, and Rocklin held on for the program's most significant regular-season triumph.
Del Oro is celebrating its 50th year. Rocklin opened in 1993. The schools are some five miles apart, and players in this game grew up as virtual neighbors.
From 4-6 a year ago to this, Rocklin has come of age. So has Cummings, who knows a thing or two about championship pursuits. He was a key player on Rocklin's basketball team that reached the state Division II finals at Arco Arena last March.
"He's 100-percent healthy now, explosive and can shake in space," Benzel said. "And he's an even better individual. He makes the team better, the program better, the school better, the community better."
Call the Bee's Joe Davidson, (916) 321-1280.
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