No. 6 Delta blasts JC

For the past decade, opening the season against the Eagles has been no picnic. And the 2010 season proved no different.
Delta, which has won at least eight games in each of the last 12 seasons, defeated the Jay County High School football team for the 20th straight time Friday 58-7.
The visiting Eagles scored their first touchdown just 1:34 into the game. Their 58 points after two quarters are the most points JCHS has ever allowed in a half.
“They’re young,” said Delta coach Grant Zgunda, whose team turned in its 19th consecutive regular-season win. “You feel bad about the first half. But we’ve got to go play a half for conditioning and timing. … It’s just one of those games. I’m sure they are better than the way they played in the first half, and we’re probably not as good as we played in the first half.”
The Eagles could not have played much better in the opening half, scoring on seven of their eight possessions.
They needed just 1:34 to march down the field for their first touchdown, and made the score 14-0 just over two minutes later when they blocked a punt and Todd Fowler recovered it in the end zone for a score. Delta also had a blocked punt for a TD against the Patriots last season.
A pair of rushing touchdowns pushed the advantage to 28-0, and on the final play of the opening quarter a snap flew over punter Jarod Lochtefeld’s head. Lochtefeld managed to track down the ball, but was tackled in the end zone for a safety.
Delta added four more TDs in the second quarter — two runs by Zach Overfield and two passes by Ozzie Mann — to set the record for most points in a half against the JCHS defense. The Patriots allowed 55 first-half points in their 81-14 loss to Delta at the RCA Dome in 1999.
 Despite the lopsided numbers — the Eagles had over 200 yards of offense in the first half compared to 41 for Jay County — coach Steve Boozier has positive words about his team’s effort.
“Defensively … we gave up 58 points, but we pursued very well and we gang-tackled very well,” Boozier, a 1985 JCHS graduate, said after his first game at the helm. “They broke some plays on us, but we’ll get better at that stuff. I didn’t see a bunch of broken tackles out there in the open field tonight. That is encouraging.”
The Patriots got their only score in the second half, in which both coaches agreed to use a running clock and Delta played its back-ups for the entire 24 minutes. Blake Crouch, who ran for 60 yards on eight carries after the intermission, delivered the TD on a 3-yard run with 3:54 left on the clock.
Cade Price added 36 yards on the ground for JCHS, and Clark Snyder added 27. Brock McFarland finished 1-for-6 passing for nine yards, with his only completion going to Cody Slusher.
“We were young and inexperienced,” said Boozier. “I’m pretty sure we have 10 kids that have not started on offense, and our offense looked a little slow tonight. … We’re asking those offensive linemen to do something they have not done before. And they’re going to get better. We’ve just got to keep trusting in that.
“The backs kept running hard. I was impressed with that.”
Jay County also fumbled the ball seven times, and committed seven penalties for 65 yards.Overfield ran nine times for 96 yards to lead Delta, and Todd Fowler (47 yards) and Klay Fullenkamp (33 yards) each averaged more than 10 yards per carry. Mann, who tossed for four touchdowns and more than 200 yards in the first half last season, finished 6-of-9 for 97 yards.
“We’ve got a pretty balanced team,” said Zgunda. “In the past we’ve had some marquee guys. … The thing about this team is, we don’t have that one true all-star anywhere. We can throw right, we can throw left. Our right wing carries the ball, our left wing carries the ball. And then, of course, Overfield’s a good fullback. I like the balance in it.”
The Patriots, whose last win over Delta came in 1992, next game comes Friday at Blackford, where Boozier coached for eight seasons.[[In-content Ad]]