JCHS strong in loss

There is really no such thing as an enjoyable loss.

But Friday night's defeat was productive. It was gutsy. It was confidence building. And it was probably about as close to enjoyable as a loss can get.

Jay County High School's football team never stopped fighting in their second home game of the year, and the Anderson Highland Scots narrowly escaped with a 27-20 victory.

"I've never been more happy after a loss," said JCHS coach Shane Hill. "Usually losses don't sit well with me because I like to win ball games, but what a team we have. Even though we didn't come out with a win, we saw offensive production, we saw defensive hitting, we saw pass defense, we saw the whole nine yards tonight. We've got a pretty good team."

The Patriots (2-2, 0-1 Olympic Athletic Conference) trailed 13-0 at the close of the first quarter and missed several red-zone chances in the first half. However, they just kept battling behind the two-headed running game of Michael Daniels and Zach Cash and an effective short passing game.

Three times in the second half the Patriots pulled to within a touchdown, all on scoring runs by Cash (21 carries, 125 yards). The first two of those were followed almost immediately by Highland scores as the Scots got TD drives of two and three plays to give themselves a cushion. But after Cash's third TD, a 10-yard run with 3:28 to play, the Jay County defense stood up.

After giving up a first down, the Patriots stone-walled Derrick Hill (six carries, 82 yards) and Lawrence Cotton (10 carries 88 yards) on consecutive plays and then called their last timeout. The Scots (4-0, 1-0 OAC), who beat Class 2A No. 1 Heritage Christian last week, managed just three yards on third down and tossed an incomplete pass on fourth down to give JCHS the ball back with 1:12 remaining.

The Patriots moved into Highland territory before two incompletions followed by a 3-yard Cash run set up fourth-and-7. Cash was injured on the run, leaving Eric Beougher to enter the game at quarterback on the critical play. He tried for a pass on the right sideline, but overthrew Ben Vance.

Highland kneeled the ball to end the game.

"Jay County just really outplayed us the whole game," said Scots coach Randy Albano. "They kept us off offense, which is the thing to do. ...

"They played with a lot of heart."

Big plays in the running game keyed the Highland offense.

Sophomore quarterback Shannon Swain, in for the injured Brad Kindred, had an 81-yard run to set up the Scots' second score, Cotton ran for a 52-yard TD in the third quarter and Hill rolled to a 43-yard TD run in the fourth.

Highland's only sustained drive was an eight-play effort to open the game. It ran just 32 offensive plays compared to 77 for the Patriots and held the ball for less than 13 minutes.

The Patriots used ball control to their advantage as their scoring drives went 11, nine and 11 plays. Cash and Daniels (27 carries, 108 yards) kept the ball moving on the ground, and Cash had by far his best passing game with 13 completions for 132 yards.

JCHS was also helped by some Highland miscues as they Scots muffed a pair of punts. The second, recovered by Tyler Aker, led to Cash's second TD run.

"We opened the run game up for Cash," said Hill. "The play-action pass was huge for us tonight. They bit on Mike D and Cash was able to get out and get some easy throws."

Perhaps the deciding factor was Jay County's inability to convert in the red zone in the first half. They were near the end zone three times before the intermission, reaching the 18-, 5-, and 14-yard lines only to come away without any points.

"They kind of dominated us, but when they got across the 20 our guys kind of sucked it up and made the plays," said Albano. "That's a good sign.

"The second half was a little different story. They kind of figured out what to do."

"When you get inside the 20 ... it's basically whoever does the best job of executing is going to get it done," added Hill. "For one reason or another in the first half we broke down inside the 20."[[In-content Ad]]