0 for two

HUNTINGTON — The Patriot defense broke down on the first drive of the game.

It continued to unravel from there.

Jay County High School’s football team allowed a touchdown on all but one defensive possession and didn’t cross midfield offensively in a 56-0 loss to the Huntington North Vikings on Friday at Kriegbaum Field.

“Everything was troublesome tonight,” said JCHS coach Tim Millspaugh, whose team dips to 0-2 on the year and has now been shut out in back-to-back contests for the first time since not scoring a point for three straight games in 2010. “I’m not going to sugarcoat; we got beat in every facet — special teams, defense, offense (and) coaching. You name it, they beat us.”

Huntington North, which collapsed in the second half of a 52-13 loss to Warsaw last week, was strong offensively from the onset.

“I think our kids came out from the get-go with something they maybe haven’t had before and got a little confidence going,” said Vikings’ coach Bob Prescott, a 1985 JCHS graduate. “Our kids needed that. I feel for the Jay guys, I’ve been there too.

“Our kids executed extremely well. It’s rewarding for our kids. I’m not sure they’ve ever been part of something like that.”

The Vikings (1-1) needed just two plays to score on the game’s opening possession. They traveled 74 yards, including an offside penalty. Deven Newcomb capped the scoring drive with a 35-yard run around the right side of the line.

It was the first of his three TDs. He rushed for 111 yards on 10 carries, nine of which came in the first quarter. He had scoring runs of 4 and 12 yards as well.

Huntington North, which led 28-0 at the end of the first quarter and 42-0 at halftime, notched all eight touchdowns on the ground in racking up 325 rushing yards.

With Jay County going with a more sizeable defensive front in an effort to stop runs up the middle, Prescott felt going to the perimeter gave his team a better option.

“Early we hit some stuff to the edge which was huge for us,” Prescott said.

The Patriot defense just didn’t have an answer for anything run to the outside of the tackles.

“The sweep stuff, obviously you have to support that with your corner,” Millspaugh said. “We didn’t support it correctly.

“The issue we have — we can talk about youth and inexperience, and we certainly have that — but we have to start taking steps forward. Clearly what we’re teaching them, they’re not understanding and that totally falls on us (the coaching staff). We have to do a better job of getting them to understand what we need them to do.”

Jackson Holzinger, Lawson Shearer, Cam McCarver, Alexander Gallegos and Nathaniel Elliot all had rushing touchdowns for Huntington North.

JCHS sophomore quarterback Quinn Faulkner was sidelined with a shoulder injury, so junior Sheldon Eley was thrust into the starting role. He ended up as the team’s leading rusher with 14 yards on 15 carries. He had five pass attempts — two were completed for minus-3 yards — and threw one interception.

“Given the situation he was in I thought he tried to compete,” Millspaugh said. On six of Eley’s carries he was brought down behind the line of scrimmage.

“You have to be able to block the three down (linemen),” Millspaugh added. “We saw exactly what we wanted but we did not execute well at all.”

Jay County gained 43 yards in its 47-0 loss last week to Norwell, and had 11 fewer yards against the Vikings.

“We all have a part in this, there is no single person,” Millspaugh said. “We’re not ‘I’ people, we’re ‘we’ people, and Jay County football got dominated tonight.

“That includes every single person.”

Prescott, who is in his first year leading Huntington North, tried not to make too big of a deal that his team was playing against his alma mater. He said he mentioned it in passing during his squad’s scouting meeting Monday.

It had a special meaning for him, though.

“I love Jay County,” he said. “It’s been good to me. I coached there my first eight years as an assistant.

“It was emotional for me to do that … I wish them well. They just have to stay to the grindstone and trust their process and get there.

“It was emotional more internally for me than it was anything with the kids.”