Jay County outlasts Bluffton

BLUFFTON — It was nearly impossible for the Jay County defense to stop D’Wayne Eskridge and his Bluffton teammates in the opening half Friday.
The Tigers put up 34 points in the first 24 minutes.
But the Patriots (2-3, 1-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) forced a fumble and two turnovers on downs in the third quarter, and kept the Tigers (1-4, 0-2 ACAC) out of the end zone in the final minute of the game to hang on for a 54-50 stunner against new conference rival Bluffton.
“We needed to step up,” said JCHS junior Mario Rodriguez, who had a team-high 13 tackles, two sacks and recovered the Bluffton fumble on the opening drive of the third quarter. “I knew we had to step up and work. We all did our jobs and stayed together as a team.
“Those are the first two sacks we’ve had all season. That’s what I’ve been working for all year.”
After Jay County’s Cole Stigleman broke a 48-yard touchdown with 45.4 seconds left in the game — the freshman had 18 carries for 129 yards and two TDs in place of an injured Drew Huffman — Eskridge couldn’t field the ensuing kickoff cleanly and was taken down at his own 22-yard line.
Bluffton quarterback Jacob Wenger had back-to-back passes fall incomplete, giving the Tigers a third-and-10 with 22.8 seconds.
Wenger, who was 13-of-25 for 209 yards and a touchdown, completed a screen pass to Javon Morgan for no gain, then a 15-yard pass on fourth down to Noah Antrim, who ran out of bounds at the Bluffton 37 to stop the clock with 15.9 seconds left.
The Tigers ran the same play with nearly the same result when Antrim stepped out of bounds at the Patriot 47 for a 16-yard completion and another first down. With the clock already stopped, Bluffton coach Randy Hudgins used his second timeout of the half with 4.9 seconds left.
On the subsequent play, Wenger was chased out of the pocket, and threw a ball over the middle to Eskridge. Wenger’s pass was short and went through the arms of Patriot linebacker Levi Hummel for an incomplete pass, stopping the clock with 0.9 seconds.
Wenger was once again chased from the pocket, this time by Jon Blankenship and Bryan Stancliffe, rolled to his right and heaved a desperation throw that, again, went through Hummel’s arms.
The consecutive incomplete passes sealed the win for Jay County, its first in the ACAC.
“With the way we’ve played this year, to give up 34 points in the first half … it would have been easy for those kids to cash their chips in,” said JCHS coach Tim Millspaugh, who got choked up after the game talking to his players about the win. “It’s not who they are. It’s not the resolve that we have or the character of our kids.
“I’m very pleased with the way our kids finished. That’s what it’s all about, it’s about finishing, and tonight they did a great job.”
From the opening quarter it looked as if the game was going to be a shootout.
Huffman, who left in the second quarter with a shoulder injury, put Jay County on the board first, breaking a 35-yard touchdown run on the third play from scrimmage.
But, three plays later, Eskridge broke open a 75-yard touchdown run, his first of five scores on the evening. The Bluffton junior added a 20-yard score in the first quarter, had a 1-yard run and 22-yard reception from Wenger in the second and returned a kick 75 yards in the fourth quarter. He finished with 17 carries for 143 yards and caught three passes for 64 yards.
“He’s a special young man (with) obviously some God-given ability that you can’t coach,” Hudgins said of Eskridge. “He really did a good job all the way around and didn’t leave the field very much tonight and was a weapon in a number of different ways.”
Levi Stant, a senior, and Stigleman scored in the opening quarter, helping the Patriots to a 21-14 lead after eight minutes. But Eskridge’s two scores and another by Wenger put Bluffton ahead 34-28 at halftime.
In the third quarter, Jay County’s Kaleb Toland notched the only score of the period. It appeared as if the senior was bottled up by the Bluffton defense, but he slipped through at the 9-yard line for his first of two scores. He found the end zone from 3 yards out early in the fourth quarter, which was set up by a 41-yard run by Andrew McShane.
McShane also found the end zone twice for the Patriots, once in the second quarter and again to open the fourth.
Trailing 46-42, Morgan put Bluffton back on top, 50-46, when he capped off an 11-play drive that took more than six minutes.
Stigleman took the ensuing kickoff 10 yards to his own 25-yard line with 1:16 left to play. Jay County, which had run its Wing-T offense the entire game, switched to its new spread formation with Nick Clemens at quarterback.
On the first play from scrimmage, which was a designed pass, Clemens rolled to his left, was chased by two Tiger defenders and ran out of bounds at the 36 for a first down. Bluffton’s Matt Hilton was flagged for a late-hit call, giving Jay County the ball in Tigers’ territory with 1:02 on the clock.
Clemens heaved a pass on first down to Aaron Neal, who had the ball tip off his hands and fall incomplete.
Then, Stigleman’s number was called, and he took the handoff to the right, got through the line of scrimmage and cut to his left and down the sideline. With space ahead of him, he turned on the jets and was brought down from behind as he crossed into the end zone for the go-ahead score, and Stant ran in the two-point conversion.
“(It) felt amazing,” Stigleman said of his game-winning score. “Once I got that hole, I found open space. It felt good to get that score.”