Illusion fades

Things started off well for the Patriots, as the first three plays resulted in 41 yards and a pair of first downs.

Things looked like they were about to take a sharp turn in favor of the Raiders as the fourth play resulted in the Patriots fumbling the ball twice and turning it over on the second.

That was an illusion.

On the next play, the Raiders gave the ball away with a fumble of their own to keep the Patriots in good field position and, after an initial score, it was all downhill for the visitors.

Jay County High School’s football team took early control and dominated both sides of the ball against the Southern Wells Raiders for a 47-0 victory in the Allen County Athletic Conference opener for both teams Friday.

“I thought for the most part we played well and we played hard,” said JCHS coach Grant Zgunda. “Coaches always do this but, we have a very tough stretch coming up — I feel like we have a chance to be competitive in every single one of them — but one thing we can’t have are the penalties. So, we got to clean those up. That’s our main focus this week and we’ve got to get better every week.”

One of the Patriots’ nine penalties came immediately following the fumble by Southern Wells (0-3, 0-1 ACAC), as they got called for a false start. Another flag got thrown on the following play, pulling back a 20-yard pass from Sean Bailey to Isaac Dues, to make it only a gain of 9 yards.

Despite the setbacks from the fumble and two penalties, Jay County (2-1, 1-0 ACAC) got on the board early after a pair of rushes by A.J. Myers that totaled 36 yards. Myers’ PAT attempt sailed wide right, giving JCHS only a 6-0 lead with 8 minutes, 47 seconds, remaining.

    Jay County’s A.J. Myers stiff arms Leeland Goodnight of Southern Wells during the first half Friday. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

After the Patriot defense forced the first-play fumble, it allowed the Raiders to get their biggest drive of the day.

Aided by another JCHS penalty on a pass interference call against Carter Fugiett, the Raiders still only came up with two first downs and 31 yards before having to punt the ball away.

In all, the Patriots’ defense smothered Southern Wells, giving up 43 total offensive yards and four first downs, while only allowing the Raiders onto the Jay County half of the field once. (The Raiders started the final drive of the half on the Patriots’ 34-yard line after a 33-yard kick off return by Levi Blake.)

“We all knew we had to go in and shut down the run and I think we did a really good job of that today,” said Patriot linebacker Garrett Bennett. “We really keyed this week on sticking to our fundamentals and our responsibilities. We did a great job of that and really nailed it home.”

The Jay County offense supplemented its defensive dominance by scoring on six of its nine drives. The three times it failed to reach the end zone were the opening drive fumble, another fumble by Bailey during the first drive of the second quarter and the final drive when it let the clock run out.

Myers scored the first two touchdowns on the ground in the first quarter.

After the Bailey fumble, the defense forced a three-and-out that led to a 60-yard punt return that Grant Wendel brought to the house for the third score of the game.

“We knew before anything happened that it was going to be a short high kick,” Wendel said. “I saw it go up, looked down, (saw) no one within 15 yards, caught it and took it. Man, I don’t know. I was just running for my life.

“It was just awesome and exciting is really all it was. That made everything else exciting the whole entire night.”

The next three TDs came via pass from Bailey, each to a different receiver. The first found Fugiett for a 22-yard touchdown with 1:12 remaining in the first half.

A quick three-and-out for the Raiders to start the third quarter set up an eventual 25-yard pass to Wendel for the next touchdown.

On the first play of the next drive, Brady Jetmore picked off Leeland Goodnight to get the ball back. A 10-yard rush by Myers was followed by a 21-yard TD pass to Wendel.

The Patriots had seven different receivers catch a ball, with every one going for 14 yards or more. Bailey finished 9-of-12 passing with three touchdowns and 175 yards.

The final score came at 9:19 in the fourth as Leighton Brown drove the ball 40 yards downfield on six attempts, capping the drive with a 1-yard rush.