CMA blanks Jay on homecoming (10/09/04)

PORTLAND — The Patriots will be glad to see the Culver Military Academy depart their schedule.

Last season, Jay County traveled northwest and took a 53-6 beating. This year the visiting Eagles blanked the Patriots 12-0 to ruin their homecoming contest.

The teams will not play again next season as the two-year contract has come to an end.

“We really needed this one, and I’m sure they did too,” said Culver coach Andrew Dorrel, whose team entered Friday night’s game at 1-6.

“Fortunately our defense stepped up in a big way. They had the ball twice inside the 20-yard line in the first half and we were able to deny them from getting any points so I’m really proud of the effort our defense put in tonight.”

The Eagles got their scores thanks to a pair of big plays — one long run by sophomore running back Neven Fingerhut and one costly mistake by Jay County.

After a futile first quarter of offense for both teams, Culver got some fire after blocking a 47-yard field goal attempt by Trent Bailey.

Taking the ball at the 20-yard line, the Eagles got runs of 11 and 10 yards from Nic Salary and Andy Parchman. Fingerhut took care of the rest, busting up the middle on the following play.

He got past the linebackers, cut toward the left sideline, got a great block from receiver Kevin Cash and ran through a final tackle before sprinting the final 30 yards to the end zone. His 59-yard touchdown jaunt — which was part of a 12-carry, 132-yard evening — gave Culver a 6-0 advantage with 9:22 left in the first half.

“That was a huge momentum changer,” said Dorrel of Fingerhut’s score. “We were able to use it to our advantage.”

Amazingly, the Patriots got five downs for the second time this season on one drive during the third quarter. This time it backfired on them.

Jay County should have faced fourth-and-7, but because of some confusion in the midst of back-to-back penalties it was ruled to be third down. The Patriots weren’t able to convert and were forced to punt on “fifth-and-2.”

The snap on the punt try went hurtling over punter Trent Bailey’s head for a 29-yard loss. Unlike the previous fifth down — which nearly helped the Patriots force overtime in a 30-29 loss to Muncie Southside — this one was not helpful.

The bad snap set up the Eagles at the Patriots’ 5-yard line. The needed four plays, but finally punched the ball in on a 1-yard run by quarterback Buddy Hornbeck for a 12-0 lead.

Jay County had a chance to attempt a comeback when Michael Myers returned the ensuing kickoff 53 yards to the Culver 36, but it didn’t happen. After driving the ball to the 16-yard line, Cory Locke got picked off by Max Crawford at the 1-yard line.

The Patriots never got in the red zone again in the defeat.

“(There was) not a flow on the offense at all tonight,” said Jay County coach Shane Hill. “We couldn’t move the ball very well. There are some things I could have called differently that I’ll go back and evaluate the film and see where I need to improve. But these guys need to go back and watch the film and evaluate themselves too.”

Jay County (2-6) had the ball inside the 20-yard line twice in the first half, but could not convert.

It turned the ball over on downs after taking the ball at the 11-yard line thanks to a bad snap by Culver’s punting unit in the first quarter. Then the Patriots got to the 19-yard line in the second quarter thanks mostly to a 55-yard pass from Locke to Josh Glessner, only to be stopped on downs again.

Locke went 7-of-19 through the air for 118 yards, and the running game struggled mightily. Jay County carried 32 times for just 19 yards.

“We knew they were going to blitz backers because of the running success we had,” said Hill. “And they blitzed backers against their last two week’s opponents and we saw it on film. We prepped for it all week long. ... we prepared for the blitz and then we just didn’t handle it.”

Jay County closes the regular season at home Friday against South Dearborn at 7:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]