Sweet win at Southside

MUNCIE — The Patriots and Rebels have authored their fair share of classic games over the last 10 years.
The former conference rivals added another thriller to the record books Friday.
Jay County overcame a nine-point deficit with nine minutes to play, forcing a late fumble and scoring the game-winning touchdown with just 33.7 seconds left to beat the Muncie Southside Rebels 32-28.
“It’s a great day to be a Patriot,” said JCHS football coach Steve Boozier, whose team improved to 4-1. “To keep them scoreless (in the second half) after they put 22 up on our defense in the first half and then pick up those 13 points was a big deal.
“It wasn’t a real clean game on either side … There’s a lot of things to improve on, but it’s easier to come in and work on improving those things when it’s a four-point win versus the alternative.
“We’ve won two in a row now and next week our goal is to get three in a row.”
A Myron Anthony interception return for a touchdown on the final play of the first half dropped Jay County into a 28-19 deficit, and that score still stood when the Patriots forced a fumble early in the fourth quarter.
Thanks to passes of 20 and 24 yards from Tyler Back to Cade Price and Brock McFarland respectively, JCHS drove seven plays for a touchdown to pull themselves within two. And after the teams traded punts, the Patriot defense struck again.
Jay County stripped quarterback Timber Hatfield of the ball on a third-and-9 run and recovered the ball for its fifth forced turnover of the game.
A 25-yard-pass from Back to McFarland moved the ball to the Southside 24-yard line, and after a trio of Cade Price runs the connection struck again. Back completed a jump ball to McFarland at the 2-yard line, and a play later Blake Crouch ran in over the right side to give the Patriots the lead.
“I didn’t think they could possibly throw the ball like that,” said Southside coach Mike Paul, noting the Patriots’ 175 yards through the air. “I mean, I never saw anything on film or in pre-game warm-up to think they could complete balls on us like they did. But they did.
“They out-jumped us. They went for the ball. Some of those balls were thrown up like punts. But their receiver went up and got them, took them away from our athletes. I’m surprised, very surprised.”
Even so, the Rebels had a chance at the victory after a late-hit penalty following the ensuing kickoff gave them the ball at the Jay County 42-yard line. Hatfield threw four straight incompletions, although he just missed a wide-open Anthony in the end zone on fourth down.
“We had people wide open down the field, even on those at the end,” said Paul. “They didn’t go to a prevent or anything. …
“We didn’t connect on one of them.
“This is another loss where we expected a win. We’re 1-4, and we really expected to maybe sitting here at 4-1. … These are very difficult losses.”
The fourth-quarter comeback by the Patriots was just the latest thrilling game in the wild rivalry between the former Olympic Athletic Conference foes.
In 2004, thanks to the help of a fifth down, Jay County scored the potential game-tying touchdown with no time remaining only to miss the ensuing extra-point try in a 30-29 defeat.
Two years later, the Patriots rallied from a 21-0, first-quarter deficit to defeat Southside 35-27.
And in 2008, the teams combined for a state record 1,251 total yards in a 63-54 shootout victory for the Rebels.
Jay County’s win Friday came on the strength of its second-half defense, which allowed just 33 Southside yards after giving up 248 before the break. The Patriots forced five turnovers, including the pair that set up touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
“Defensively we got some key turnovers,” said Boozier. “We didn’t make any personnel changes, we just made some changes on who was covering who. (Defensive coordinator) Tim Millspaugh did a great job of making those adjustments. It was a total team effort. … The kids responded.”
Ritchie Keen paced the defense with six tackles and a fumble recovery. Jason Houston had five tackles, and McFarland made two tackles, forced two fumbles and recovered two fumbles.
“It was a mess,” said Paul. “We had a couple of bad snaps, turnovers, fumbles. It just looked sloppy.
“We had chances to put the game away. We had chances to do that, and we didn’t do it.
“Were not going to win ball games when we have five turnovers. We don’t deserve to win.
“It’s pretty disappointing.”
McFarland and Price combined for most of the Patriots’ offense, with Price running 20 times for 131 yards and catching a pair of passes for 53 yards. McFarland caught the other eight Back completions for 122 yards, mostly on jump balls.
“Brock’s an athlete,” said Boozier. “It was toss it up and let him got get it. He is a great receiver.”
Hatfield did everything for Southside, completing 12-of-18 passes for 158 yards and running 18 times for 68 yards. Anthony had four receptions for 71 yards, and Nate Workman caught four balls for 54 yards.[[In-content Ad]]