Bruins battered (08/27/05)

This is just the one-two punch the Patriots had hoped for.

Jay County’s two-headed monster at running back — seniors Steven Castillo and Justin Gilbert — ran roughshod over the Blackford Bruins, each gaining more than 100 yards in a 32-14 victory.

“Coming into the season I said, ‘I don’t think teams can stop them both,’” said JCHS coach Shane Hill. “If you key on one the other one is going to bite you. ... To have them both go over 100, that’s a great thing.”

The duo quickly erased thoughts of last week’s loss to Delta, with Gilbert taking the ball early. It took him just two carries to surpass last week’s team rushing total as he busted up the middle and ran unchallenged for the final 40 yards of a 63-yard touchdown on the second play of the game.

Castillo took care of the ball on the second drive, during which Jay County surpassed its overall yardage total from the previous week. He ran in for a 40-yard touchdown to cap the drive, tip-toeing left until he found the hole and then running untouched to the end zone.

Castillo led the team with 133 yards on 13 carries, adding a 24-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Gilbert picked up 128 yards on 10 carries. They accounted for the bulk of the Patriots’ 257 yards on 37 rushing attempts.

“It was a lot of our linemen,” said Gilbert, passing on the credit to the boys in the trenches. “It was them. We couldn’t run like that without them.”

Jay County (1-1) added another score as Cory Locke found Cory Comer with a 17-yard touchdown pass with 2:40 to go in the first quarter as the Patriots built a 19-0 lead and were never challenged.

They racked up 167 first-quarter yards, 64 more than in their entire first game, compared to just six for the Bruins.

“I’m very pleased with tonight’s performance,” said JCHS coach Shane Hill. “I’m real happy with the way we came out in the first quarter.

“We told them it was a first-quarter ball game. We told them that if they put the heat on them and we really pushed them to the edge that this was a team that we could do some things against and be very successful at them.”

Blackford (0-2) got on the board in the second quarter, engineering a 16-play, 74-yard drive capped by a 1-yard run by Braxton McCoin. It marked the team’s first touchdown of the season after losing 6-3 to Southern Wells last week.

However, the Patriots went back up by 19 on an 8-yard run by Locke with 1:04 remaining in the first half. Castillo added his second touchdown in the fourth quarter, and Matt Kirkwood scored for Blackford on a 9-yard run with 8:58 remaining for the final margin.

Jay County will try to carry momentum from the victory to Franklin County next week. The Wildcats are 2-0 on the year following Friday night’s 47-7 victory over the Connersville Spartans. They defeated Muncie Southside 42-0 in the their season-opener.

“We’ve got our schemes together and we’re blocking good now,” said Castillo. “We’re ready for next week.”

McCoin carried the load for the Bruins, rushing 25 times for 106 yards.

“There were a lot of positives,” said Blackford coach and Jay County graduate Steve Boozier. “The mistakes were young-kid mistakes, but there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

There was a scary moment in the game when Bruin sophomore running back Tanner Byall took the ball on a reverse less than a minute into the final period. He ran about 15 yards up the right sideline before being blasted by Jay County sophomore safety Aaron Daniels.

Byall remained motionless on his stomach the Patriots’ 47-yard line. The game was delayed for 15 minutes while he was placed on a backboard and taken by ambulance to Jay County Hospital.

No information was available from JCH at press time, but Boozier said after the game he thought Byall would be OK.

“He had consciousness when he left,” Boozier said. “I think it was mostly precautionary, from what we were told.”[[In-content Ad]]