Arabians trample Jay Co.

In their first six games this season, the Patriots had seen some lopsided scores.
It wasn’t the margin of defeat Friday that bothered Steve Boozier Friday night. And it wasn’t the effort.
It was the lack of execution.
The Jay County High School football coach said he felt his team lacked focus in its 49-0 loss to the visiting Pendleton Heights Arabians.
“I’m probably as frustrated now as I’ve been,” said Boozier. “And it doesn’t have anything to do with physical effort. I think this is probably the least focused game we’ve had. ... I could tell in pre-game warm-up it was going to be a struggle tonight. … We just didn’t play very focused. And then when we got down we felt sorry for ourselves.”
The Patriots (2-5) struggled on both sides of the ball.
They allowed more than 400 yards of total offense to Pendleton Heights (4-3) while gaining only 82, and more than half of that came against the Arabians’ junior varsity unit.
JCHS allowed five first-half touchdowns, including four to PHHS tailback Dezmon Nunn, while not gaining a first down of its own.
“If we’re using the techniques that we’re teaching and we’re getting physically whipped … sometimes the other team’s better,” said Boozier. “But we have some kids who are still being bull-headed, trying to get by not doing those things, and we’re going to give other kids a chance. You saw that on defense tonight. It looked like Grand Central Station. It’s going to start looking that way on offense …”
Nunn, who missed the second half of last week’s 20-14 loss to Delta with an ankle sprain, carried the Arabians down the field on a nine-play drive on their first possession. He ran the ball six times, including a 5-yard scoring run, as Pendleton Heights marched down the field.
And later, he added a couple of big-play touchdowns.
He had a 49-yard scoring run on a draw play with 2:00 left in the first quarter, and took a pass from quarterback Mitch Patishall 43 yards up the sideline to give the Arabians a 35-0 lead at the half. He also had a 3-yard scoring run in the second quarter and finished with 132 yards on just 13 carries.
“He was playing at about 70 percent tonight,” said Pendleton Heights coach John Broughton of Nunn. “I thought he got better as he went on out there.”
Pendleton Heights racked up 344 yards on the ground in all, as it also got scoring runs from Jacob Lyons and Austin Earley.
“We control the ball game up front,” said Broughton. “I was really proud of the way our linemen played on both sides of the ball.”
Patishall, who completed 11-of-18 passes for 147 yards, added a 14-yard scoring pass to Brad McNeil.
The loss marked the second time the Patriots had been shut out in the last three weeks, and the fifth time this year they have been held to a touchdown or less. It was their second straight shutout loss to the Arabians, who blanked Jay County 42-0 a year ago.
Boozier said he thought his team had the right scheme to be able to move the ball against Pendleton Heights. But the Patriots didn’t get a first down until the 8-minute mark of the third quarter, and that one came by way of a facemask penalty.
Jay County finished with just 82 yards of offense, and averaged less than two yards per carry.
“They lined up exactly where we wanted them. And we didn’t get them blocked,” said Boozier. “That’s probably the most frustrating thing tonight.”
Blake Crouch led Jay County with 15 yards rushing on five carries. Brock McFarland was 2-of-9 passing for 39 yards, with both completions coming in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots will go on the road next week for the first time since Aug. 27 when they visit Heritage (3-4).
“It’s not over. We’re 2-5 right now. There’s nothing saying we can’t put a couple games together and end the season at 4-5 and see what the playoff draw gives us.
“We’re going to keep plugging away and trying to get better.”[[In-content Ad]]