Jay completes

HARTFORD CITY — The Bruins gained eight yards on their first play Saturday night. In their first eight plays, they moved the ball 38 yards to get into the red zone.
Then they fumbled.
The Patriots took care of the rest.
In a span of less than nine minutes, Jay County High School’s football team racked up 133 yards and three touchdowns en route to finishing off the 42-8 victory it started Friday night over the Blackford Bruins.
“We really didn’t start that well defensively, but got a turnover,” said JCHS coach Tim Millspaugh, whose team had taken a 14-0 lead Friday before lightning forced the game to be postponed. “We were very efficient offensively.”
Between the two evenings, the Patriots scored on five of their first six possessions.
“That really makes it difficult on anybody.”
Following the fumble recovered by Noah Hummel, Blackford’s second of four turnovers in the game and the junior’s second recovery in as many nights, the Patriots zipped down the field with a 16-yard Cole Stigleman run, a 30-yard Holton Hill pass to Caleb Webster and some help from a personal foul. Ryan Schlechty then recorded his first touchdown of the season when he took a counter play for an 11-yard score.
The Bruins (0-2) gave up the ball on another fumble recovered by Ethan Theurer — they put the ball on the ground nine times in all — leading to a quick score for JCHS. On the second play of the ensuing drive, Hill dodged two defenders to escape what looked like a sure sack, looked up field and tossed to Stigleman near the right sideline. Stigleman took the ball to the end zone for a 36-yard score.
“The Houdini act, getting out of there, was very impressive,’” said Millspaugh, whose junior QB was 8-of-9 passing for 156 yards and three touchdowns in the first half before giving way to Parker Grimes and then Gabe Faulkner after the intermission. “And obviously I like the fact that he kept his eyes down the field because a year ago he wouldn’t have done that.
“But he told us when he came over, he said, ‘I was gonna run it, but I figured Cole would probably get further. So I went ahead and threw it.’
“Good decision.”
Stigleman had a 57-yard scoring run wiped out by a penalty on the next Patriot possession, but his teammates didn’t take long to cover that ground again. Twice Hill got the Blackford defense to bite on pump fakes, hitting Michael Schlecthy first for a 47-yard gain and then for a 12-yard touchdown and a 35-0 halftime lead.
“Most of the time, if you get it close to him, he catches it. That ball … I wasn’t sure he was going to get it,” said Millspaugh of the 47-yarder. “He had to reach out there and get it. … He made a heck of a catch. He’s doing a nice job.”
Jacob Geesaman, who had a 5-yard TD run in the first quarter Friday and led the defense with 13 tackles, capped the JCHS scoring in the third quarter when he took a sweep around the left corner and then cut all the way back to the right sideline for a 46-yard touchdown.
Stigleman, who caught a 9-yard scoring pass from Hill Friday, paced an offense that spread the wealth as he had 76 yards on seven carries and two receptions for 45 yards. Michael Schlecthy caught two balls for 59 yards, and Geesaman ran three times for 56 yards.
Blackford’s only points came following the Patriots’ first turnover of the season, a fumble that gave the home team the ball on the JCHS 49-yard line. The Bruins were in the end zone on a Carson Kinder 1-yard dive three plays later, and Kinder added the two-point conversion for the final margin.
First-year BHS coach Randy Sehy, who previously led the Marion Giants, was left to lament his team’s giveaways.
“Momentum is a strange thing in athletics. And maybe moreso in football. If we go down and score, the kids are excited and pumped up,” he said of his team’s first drive of Saturday’s action. “Maybe we can get another stop on defense and get to try again. We’ve just got to quit killing ourselves with turnovers.
“We can’t turn the ball over as much as we did. Period. I’m not saying we win, but it’s not 42-8. We just keep working on it.”