July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Defense comes up big in first win for Jay Co. (09/04/04)
JCHS football
Defense comes up big in first win for Jay Co. (09/04/04)
PONETO — When Steven Castillo went down, the Jay County defense stood up.
While Devon Huftel did a nice job of replacing Castillo, it was the defense which made a second-quarter interception return by Ryan Younts stand up for a 13-7 Patriot victory over the Southern Wells Raiders Friday.
Younts made the big play of the game on the first play of the second quarter.
Southern Wells quarterback Steven Paxson was looking for a swing pass to his running back, and tossed an ill-advised lob with Patriot linemen in his face. Younts timed the play perfectly, darting into the backfield in front of slotback Ross Palmer and cruising into the end zone with a 35-yard return for a touchdown.
The score put the Jay County (1-2) up by a 13-7 count with 11:50 remaining and marked the final time either team would put points on the board.
“Give credit to the defensive line,” said Younts of his winning touchdown play. “Cody Hutzler made a good play on the quarterback and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”
The Patriots lost Castillo, the starting tailback, to a knee injury with just over four minutes left in the first half. At that point he had already rushed for 68 yards on 13 carries, including a nine-yard touchdown run in the first period.
Despite a solid 65 yards on 14 carries by Huftel in relief, Jay County never scored again. Instead, the defense took control.
The Patriots ended a pair of Southern Wells drives in the third quarter on interceptions by Ben Freeman and Josh Parker. The Raiders were inside the 35-yard line on both occasions.
Southern Wells (1-2) never got that close again as they were stopped three-and-out and four-and-out on their only two drives of the fourth quarter.
“When you have a good, solid defense it makes it nice when your offense really isn’t clicking,” said Hill, noting that no championship team wins on offense along.
“That was a great read (by Younts). The big thing was the pressure by the front line. (Paxson) wasn’t able to set his feet. He wasn’t able to view the field like a quarterback would like to, and he made a pass that he was trying to make something out of nothing. Fortunately we made them pay for that.”
In addition to his interception and touchdown return, Younts paced the Patriots with eight tackles. Corey Comer had seven tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery, and Freeman had seven tackles to go along with his interception.
The importance of defense was huge on a night in which the ball spent almost as much time on the ground as the grass did. Jay County fumbled nine times, but amazingly only lost one, while the Raiders coughed it up four times and lost two.
The only Patriot other than Castillo and Huftel to rush for positive yardage was Chris Elmore, who carried twice for four yards.
Adam Foster, playing for the injured Cory Locke, completed his first pass. That one went for four yards, but it was his only completion as he finished 1-of-11 with an interception.
“It was two teams that were both desperately trying to lose the game, and one of them was able to make one less mistake than the other,” said Southern Wells coach Mark Lefebvre of the sloppiness of the game. “I give them credit. They kept battling and kept after it.”
Paxson completed four of his first six passes for the Raiders, but went 0-for-4 with a pair of interceptions in the second half. He finished 4-of-12 with picks and threw for 48 yards.
Senior tailback Daniel Stauffer led the offense with 75 yards on 17 carries, but the damage he did was limited. He returned two kickoffs for touchdowns against Jay County last year and already had two this year, but never saw the end zone Friday night.
The lone Southern Wells score came on a 27-yard fourth down pass from Paxson to Ross Palmer midway through the first quarter.
““We told them coming in that someone other than Daniel Stauffer was going to beat us,” said Hill. “He torched us last year. That was one thing that we worked on all week long.”
Younts is looking forward to the Olympic Athletic Conference season. It will get under way Friday when the Patriots play Anderson Highland at Alexandria at 7 p.m.
“This was a big win for us, just to have momentum going into the conference,” said Younts. “It was a huge win.”[[In-content Ad]]
While Devon Huftel did a nice job of replacing Castillo, it was the defense which made a second-quarter interception return by Ryan Younts stand up for a 13-7 Patriot victory over the Southern Wells Raiders Friday.
Younts made the big play of the game on the first play of the second quarter.
Southern Wells quarterback Steven Paxson was looking for a swing pass to his running back, and tossed an ill-advised lob with Patriot linemen in his face. Younts timed the play perfectly, darting into the backfield in front of slotback Ross Palmer and cruising into the end zone with a 35-yard return for a touchdown.
The score put the Jay County (1-2) up by a 13-7 count with 11:50 remaining and marked the final time either team would put points on the board.
“Give credit to the defensive line,” said Younts of his winning touchdown play. “Cody Hutzler made a good play on the quarterback and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”
The Patriots lost Castillo, the starting tailback, to a knee injury with just over four minutes left in the first half. At that point he had already rushed for 68 yards on 13 carries, including a nine-yard touchdown run in the first period.
Despite a solid 65 yards on 14 carries by Huftel in relief, Jay County never scored again. Instead, the defense took control.
The Patriots ended a pair of Southern Wells drives in the third quarter on interceptions by Ben Freeman and Josh Parker. The Raiders were inside the 35-yard line on both occasions.
Southern Wells (1-2) never got that close again as they were stopped three-and-out and four-and-out on their only two drives of the fourth quarter.
“When you have a good, solid defense it makes it nice when your offense really isn’t clicking,” said Hill, noting that no championship team wins on offense along.
“That was a great read (by Younts). The big thing was the pressure by the front line. (Paxson) wasn’t able to set his feet. He wasn’t able to view the field like a quarterback would like to, and he made a pass that he was trying to make something out of nothing. Fortunately we made them pay for that.”
In addition to his interception and touchdown return, Younts paced the Patriots with eight tackles. Corey Comer had seven tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery, and Freeman had seven tackles to go along with his interception.
The importance of defense was huge on a night in which the ball spent almost as much time on the ground as the grass did. Jay County fumbled nine times, but amazingly only lost one, while the Raiders coughed it up four times and lost two.
The only Patriot other than Castillo and Huftel to rush for positive yardage was Chris Elmore, who carried twice for four yards.
Adam Foster, playing for the injured Cory Locke, completed his first pass. That one went for four yards, but it was his only completion as he finished 1-of-11 with an interception.
“It was two teams that were both desperately trying to lose the game, and one of them was able to make one less mistake than the other,” said Southern Wells coach Mark Lefebvre of the sloppiness of the game. “I give them credit. They kept battling and kept after it.”
Paxson completed four of his first six passes for the Raiders, but went 0-for-4 with a pair of interceptions in the second half. He finished 4-of-12 with picks and threw for 48 yards.
Senior tailback Daniel Stauffer led the offense with 75 yards on 17 carries, but the damage he did was limited. He returned two kickoffs for touchdowns against Jay County last year and already had two this year, but never saw the end zone Friday night.
The lone Southern Wells score came on a 27-yard fourth down pass from Paxson to Ross Palmer midway through the first quarter.
““We told them coming in that someone other than Daniel Stauffer was going to beat us,” said Hill. “He torched us last year. That was one thing that we worked on all week long.”
Younts is looking forward to the Olympic Athletic Conference season. It will get under way Friday when the Patriots play Anderson Highland at Alexandria at 7 p.m.
“This was a big win for us, just to have momentum going into the conference,” said Younts. “It was a huge win.”[[In-content Ad]]
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