Jay enjoys big win (10/01/05)

The Patriots celebrated homecoming in the end zone.

Jay County’s football team partied all night long, especially camping out in the end zone in the second quarter when it scored touchdowns on three consecutive offensive plays. It rolled out to a 37-0 lead at the half en route to a 50-14 victory over the Winchester Golden Falcons.

“It feels great,” said senior lineman Bill Spahr after the team clinched just its second winning regular season since 1988.

“It’s awesome because I think we’ve restored a lot of pride in Jay County,” added fellow lineman Joseph Vormohr.

“People in town are starting to come and watch us now and they didn’t in years past,” said senior receiver Josh Glessner, who caught a pair of 30-plus-yard passes in the win.

“We’re also getting respect from kids at school,” said Spahr, completing the thought. “No one is coming up (and saying) ‘Hey, you’re going to lose.’ Everybody said ‘Hey, good luck tonight.’ It’s a good feeling.”

As it turned out, luck didn’t have much to do with the outcome as Jay County (5-2) dominated from the opening kickoff in their fourth straight victory.

Glessner returned the opening kick all the way to midfield to give his team great field position. Jay County pushed the ball quickly to the 11-yard line, and Steven Castillo ran 11 yards for the opening score less than four minutes into the game.

The Patriots took a 9-0 lead into the second quarter thanks to a Winchester safety and then really pressed down on the gas pedal.

Castillo got his second touchdown of the night on the first play of the second period on a 7-yard run. Winchester fumbled on the second play of its ensuing drive, setting the table for Glessner.

Glessner caught the second of his two long passes from Cory Locke on Jay County’s first play, taking the ball 34 yards to the end zone.

After the Golden Falcons went three-and-out on the next drive, the Patriots struck quickly again. This time it was Justin Gilbert, who swept around the left end and outran the defense 59 yards for a score.

The three touchdowns came in less than two minutes, and Gilbert added a 37-yard scoring run with 5:16 to go in the first half for Jay County’s 37-0 advantage.

“I’m real happy,” said Hill “... We came out and jumped on them right away. Everything was working, everything was clicking. The defense was shutting them down. We scored three times in (1:47). I’ll take that any night.”

“Every night we seem to find another emerging star on this football team,” he added, referring to Glessner. “The difficulty I’m going to have now is finding enough footballs to spread around to all the weapons that we have.”

“Hats off to the offensive line. Without those six guys up front it doesn’t matter how explosive our weapons are. Those guys made everything work tonight.”

Gilbert and Castillo each finished with 127 yards on the ground on nine and 24 carries respectively, leading Jay County to its 287 yards on the ground. Glessner had more than 100 all-purpose yards.

Michael Jobe ran for the first touchdown of his career with a 34-yard jaunt in the fourth quarter, and Dustin Harris picked up his first career score on a 3-yard run with 2:19 remaining in the game.

Hill said winning in front of the huge group of homecoming fans brought back memories of his first year with the team three years ago.

“The crowd was amazing,” he said. “I’m so thankful to those people for coming out. ... It reminded me of homecoming 2002. The crowd was electric.”

Tom Smith recorded nine tackles for Jay County as the defense held Winchester without a first down in the first half. Clint Muhlenkamp had eight tackles and a fumble recovery, Kyle Cook added seven tackles, and Chris Elmore and Aaron Daniels each came up with an interception.

Winchester’s only success came through the air.

After gaining just 35 yards in the opening half, the Golden Falcons (4-3) found their groove throwing the ball as they engineered an 18-play drive which lasted more than eight minutes to start the second half.

They passed for most of their 65 yards on the drive with Jordan Patterson finding Levi Driskell for a 6-yard touchdown pass. Their only other score came on a 61-yard toss from Patterson to Lucas Wickersham again the Patriot back-ups midway through the final period.

Winchester averaged less than two yards per carry, gaining 39 yards on 24 attempts. Patterson went 9-of-19 for 133 yards and was intercepted twice.

“We came out and didn’t play the kind of football that I expect the kids to play,” said Golden Falcon coach Scott Hargrave. “It was very disappointing. ...

“We were turning the ball over and then gave up some big plays. That’s not typical of our defense.”[[In-content Ad]]