Roughed up

MONROEVILLE — The saying goes, “When it rains, it pours.”
The skies over head were clear Friday night. But on the football field the storm came crashing down on the visiting Patriots beginning with the opening kickoff, and the downpour never slowed as the host Patriots put up a flood of points.
Jay County High School allowed a touchdown return on the opening kickoff and gave the ball away on two fumbles, an interception and a blocked punt in the first half of a 42-0 loss to host Heritage.
“I’m happier with the blocking execution, because we moved the ball well, but we just couldn’t hold on to the thing,” said JCHS coach Steve Boozier, whose team finished with 200 yards of total offense but failed to get on the scoreboard. “We’re down five touchdowns at halftime. One was a kick return, which was the first one we’ve given up this year. Two drives were stopped by fumbles and then another drive was stopped by an interception. And then you’ve got a blocked punt. … We definitely shot ourselves in the foot. That’s a sign of a young football team …”
JHCS (2-6) sent the opening kickoff rolling down hash marks on the right side, where Wil Knapke scooped it up as it reached the 20-yard line. The sophomore proceeded to scamper through the visiting special teams as he crossed the field all the way to the right side, taking the ball 80 yards to the end zone.
On the ensuing drive, Jay County drove the ball more than 50 yards. But on second-and-10 from the Heritage 30, it fumbled the ball away to start what would become a pattern for the night.
Heritage (4-4) took advantage with a 27-yard pass from Conner Sheehan to Blake Dossen and a 37-yard run by Knapke before Samuel Reyna capped the drive with a 2-yard TD run.
Jay County’s second drive ended on an interception, a punt block early in the second quarter led to a Knapke 25-yard scoring run and another fumble started the final scoring drive of the opening half for Heritage. The host Patriots carried a 35-0 lead into halftime, scored again early in the second half and played their junior varsity throughout the fourth quarter.
“We spend a lot of time and preparation on special teams and it got us started in the right direction tonight,” said Heritage coach Bob Rohrbacher, also noting the importance of the turnovers. “They were able to drive the ball down the field, and it was bend but not break. Our kids stood up when they had to.”
Knapke finished with 126 yards rushing and two TDs on just nine carries to go along with his return of the opening kick. Heritage only out-gained JCHS by 59 yards offensively, mostly because they were often working with outstanding field position by way of the turnovers. The home team had scoring drives of 25, 24 and 5 yards.
Jay County suffered its third shutout of the season and second in a row after falling 49-0 last week to Pendleton Heights, but got better offensive production. The squad that had been held to 100 yards or less three times this year got 97 of its 200 Friday on Cade Price’s 15 carries.
“Offensively, I’m not unhappy with moving the ball, I’m just unhappy with not hanging on to it,” said Boozier. “The line play was much more positive. We’ve talked about those linemen quite a bit in the last few weeks, and they got better. They got better at hitting and sticking, and obviously we moved the ball up and down the field. … They got off the ball like we wanted them too.”
Blake Crouch followed Price with 31 yards on five carries. Cody Nelson ran once for 23 yards and caught one pass for 21 yards.
Jay County also executed a successful fake punt in the first half when punter Alex Dunn tossed a 16-yard pass to Drew Houck for a first down.
JCHS will close the regular season Friday at Greenville before heading into sectional play. The draw for the tournament is Sunday.[[In-content Ad]]