Better, but just not enough

The Patriots played better defensively.

That still resulted in nearly 400 yards of offense for the opposition.

The visiting Woodlan Warriors scored touchdowns on each of their first four possessions Friday and had more than 300 yards of offense at halftime as they handed the Jay County High School football team its third consecutive loss, 42-21.

“We played a lot better defensively tonight,” said JCHS coach Tim Millspaugh, whose team was coming off of a 63-62 loss last week to Bluffton in which it gave up 511 yards of offense. “Four of those five guys on the offensive line played for them last year when they made that big run. And so, we knew winning the line of scrimmage was going to be a challenge.”

The Warriors (4-2, 4-0 Allen County Athletic Conference), who finished 14th in this week’s Class 2A AP poll voting, went all the way to the Class 2A state championship game last year, falling 15-14 to Southridge.

This year started out slower for Woodlan as it was shutout in each of its first two games. But it put up 131 points in its next three games, and the trend of offensive strength continued Friday against the Patriots.

Jay County (2-4, 1-3 ACAC) led once at 7-6 after the teams traded early touchdowns with Parker Grimes connecting on the extra point. But the visitors responded with an eight-play drive, taking the lead for good when junior Reggie Blackman went up the middle for a 7-yard TD run.

A Patriot three-and-out led to another Woodlan scoring drive, this time with Isaac Meyer punching in a 1-yard scoring run. Jay County responded with an 8-yard TD pass from Grimes to Isaac Moeller to pull within six, but the Warriors marched right back to the end zone again as quarterback Ben Reidy connected with Meyer for a 9-yard touchdown.

Woodlan nearly scored again after recovering an onside kick with about 20 seconds to play in the half, but Ryan Schlechty came up with an interception in the end zone to keep the Patriots in the game as they trailed 27-14.

Still, the Warriors racked up 304 yards of total offense in the first half, with Reidy and receiver Jack Stuckey connecting six times for 125 yards through the air.

“He never played offense until this year,” said Woodlan coach Sherwood Haydock, who also saw Sebastian Spieth and Blackman both surpass the 50 yard rushing mark in the first half. “We were so blessed. We had three-year starters with all those skill people last year, so he just started defense. But I knew he was going to be a great offensive player. He just had to wait his turn.”

Three of Stuckey’s first-half receptions went for more than 20 yards as he finished the game with eight catches for 162 yards, including a 28-yard quick slant in the third quarter on which he went untouched to the end zone.

Jay County pulled to within a touchdown as Grimes found the end zone on an 8-yard keeper on the opening drive of the second half, but the Stuckey TD pushed Woodlan up by 13 again. The next three Patriot drives all ended on failed fourth-down attempts, one of which led to a quick 16-yard scoring drive for WHS to put the game out of reach.

Some negative yardage late hurt the numbers for the Patriots, whose last two offensive plays resulted in sacks. They finished with 223 yards of offense, with the bulk of that coming from Grimes through the air. He was successful on each of his first five pass attempts, hit Trey Castillo on a 67-yard strike and finished 13-of-17 for 184 yards.

Michael Schlechty totaled 31 rushing yards on eight carries.

The Patriots will try to halt their losing streak next week for homecoming against Class 1A No. 6 South Adams, which suffered its first loss Friday at the hands of Adams Central.

“It’s the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball,” said Millspaugh. “We have to continue to keep our pads down. …

“And then defensively, we’ve got to win the line of scrimmage … We’ve got to make it hard for the ball to get to the second level.”