Shock clinch division

For a moment, the hero felt like the villain.

It didn’t take long, though, for Brian Jackson to redeem himself.

As time expired on Saturday night at the Arena, Jackson’s 34-yard field goal sailed between the posts and the Spokane Shock clinched their third straight Western Division title with a 56-54 arenafootball2 victory over the Central Valley Coyotes.

“I’d say it was an angry kick,” said Jackson, who missed 3 of 8 extra-point attempts in the game.

Prior to Saturday night, Jackson had made 80 of 87 extra-point kicks.

“I pride myself on making those,” Jackson said. “I get a little emotional about it, and I knew I had to make that field goal to get the respect back from my teammates and also just (because) the division was on the line – so to make that kick was the highlight of my career for sure.”

It was also his second big kick of the night.

After Shock quarterback Nick Davila connected with receiver Andy Olson for a 27-yard touchdown pass to give Spokane a 47-46 lead with less than four minutes remaining in the game, Jackson’s 12-yard onside kick was bobbled by Shock receiver Patrick Bugg.

Bugg made a quick shove at the ball, Shock defensive back Sergio Gilliam recovered it and Spokane earned another possession.

Davila, who completed 34 of 50 passes for 367 yards, mixed up the ensuing seven-play drive with passes to Olson and veteran receiver Kelvin Dickens before carrying the ball 4 yards for his second TD run of the night.

Davila reached the end zone with 44 seconds remaining in regulation, but Jackson’s kick on the point-after after sailed wide and the Shock settled for a 53-46 lead.

“That’s one of my specialty kicks – my onside kick,” Jackson said. “It gave us an extra possession and we scored, but I missed the extra point so it was almost like I kicked myself in the rear for doing that.”

That opened the door for Central Valley quarterback Clay Groefsema to lead the Coyotes down the field and hook up with receiver Jason Barnes for a touchdown pass and the two-point conversion play that gave CV a 54-53 lead with 16 seconds remaining.

After two plays and with 5 seconds on the clock, Jackson nailed the field goal and the Shock bench flooded the field to celebrate the team’s third division title in three years.

“Championships are sweeter when you really have to earn it, and we certainly had to earn it tonight,” Shock coach Adam Shackleford said. “Our guys never gave up. We had a lot of guys come back tonight after doing not such great things – they battled.

“I threatened some jobs and threatened some lives at halftime, and these guys came back. They’re persistent. I think a lot of other teams probably would have given up with 5 seconds left.”

Receiver Raul Vijil caught four of Davila’s six TD passes, all in the first half.

Late in the first half, Vijil jumped up and with one arm pulled in a Davila pass deep in the left corner, barely getting his foot down inside the end zone for the TD.

“I’ve had some great years here,” said Vijil, a three-year veteran with the Shock. “This year there’s just something different about this team. We have that family mentality. And now we have another banner to hang up.”

Extra points

Vijil was shaken up late in the game when he flew headfirst into the boards on a pass play. Vijil was down on the field for a couple of minutes, and was helped onto the bench. He didn’t return to the game, but after the game said that his back was sore but that he was fine. … Gilliam increased his league-leading interception total to 15 when he picked off Clay Groefsema in the fourth quarter. Gilliam’s needs one more interception to take sole possession of the af2 single-season record. At 15, Gilliam is tied with Tennessee Valley’s Kelly Snell, who set the record in 2002. … The Shock have a bye next week and return to action on July 12 at Stockton.