Eagles soar past Jay

The Eagles moved the ball at will Saturday night.
It was the opposite for the Patriots.
Delta quarterback Cade Jones threw for 131 yards and four touchdowns, and running back Joe Spegal ran for 199 yards and three scores as the Eagles rolled over the Patriots, 48-6.
The Patriots (0-1) started the game — which was moved to Saturday following heavy rain across the area Thursday night and into Friday morning — by marching 74 yards on 13 plays.
The drive, which took more than eight minutes off the clock, was capped off by a 3-yard touchdown run by Drew Huffman. The junior fullback finished with 17 carries for 96 yards. Levi Stant added 79 yards on 11 carries.
“The first drive, I was really pleased with,” said JCHS coach Tim Millspaugh, whose Patriot team has dropped its season opener against Delta in 19 of the last 20 seasons. Jay County’s only win in that span was in 2011 by way of a forfeit.
After the Patriots’ first possession, though, Delta coach Grant Zgunda adjusted his base defense to bring his safeties in and include stunts and blitzes with his linebackers.
“We thought we’d sit in our base defense and be OK, but we couldn’t,” Zgunda said.
The changes on defense worked for Delta (1-0), as they held the Patriots to one first down for the remainder of the half, and Jay County didn’t get another until midway through the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, Jones and Spegal took over.
On Delta’s ensuing drive, set up by a 42-yard kick return by Zach Mills, Spegal took the second play from scrimmage 39 yards for his first touchdown. He powered is way through the Jay County defense, as six of his 12 carries went for more than 10 yards. He added scores of 40 and 13 yards in the third and fourth quarters respectively.
The 5-foot, 9-inch Spegal used his powerful legs to break arm tackles and run past defenders.
“Our tackling was really bad,” Millspaugh said. “Sometimes I felt like our angle to the ball carrier was poor, which I felt enabled (Spegal) to cut back or beat us outside. When that happens you arm tackle because you’re not in position.
“It’s the little things. It’s the fundamentals — that stuff has got to get better.”
At the same time, nearly every pass Jones completed went for a touchdown. He was 6-of-12 with four touchdowns, three of which went to Tate Stone. The senior wide receiver found paydirt twice in the second quarter, once from 5 yards out and again from 34 yards.
“Stone had some nice catches,” Millspaugh said of the receiver who finished with four catches for 104 yards and three touchdowns. “They did a nice job of getting our outside linebacker flying out to the flats and then they had a seam to throw the football in.”
Such was the case for Jones’ fourth TD pass to Stone, who found a seam up the left side of the field midway through the third quarter. Jay County defender Justin Crouch misjudged his leap in an attempt to deflect the pass, and Stone hauled in the throw from Jones for a 34-yard score.
Jay County turned the ball over twice — once on an interception and once on a fumbled snap in the second quarter.
Nick Clemens’ only pass attempt was picked off by James Cook to halt the Patriot’s second drive. Jones found Stone three plays later for their first touchdown connection.
Backup center Donald Carty was forced into action midway through the second quarter when three-year starter Logan Antrim injured his shoulder, and a mishap on the exchange with Clemens resulted in a turnover with less than a minute remaining in the half.
“Donald did an admirable job stepping into the situation,” Millspaugh said. “Anytime you have a new guy snapping, just the feel of the snap is different.”