Jay fights off Bruins

HARTFORD CITY — When Steve Boozier called time out with 46 seconds left, he was hoping his Patriots would have a chance to get the ball back. Little did he know, it would do so on the next play.
Dakota Steed came up with an interception of Blackford Bruins back-up quarterback Evan West, handing the ball back to the Jay County offense less than a minute after it had scored to pull within a point. And on the final play of the half, Brock McFarland hooked up with fellow sophomore Cade Price for what turned out to be the winning touchdown.
Price’s catch put the Patriots up 19-14 at the break, and neither team scored in the second half as JCHS picked up its first win at Blackford since 2002.
“We wanted to force them to punt,” said Boozier of the closing minute of the opening half. “We didn’t want to let them out of the half up 14-13 if we could do anything about it.
“We broke a streak tonight. The home team has won this game for quite a while, and we snapped that streak. That’s a big thing. It gives us something to build on.
“It’s a huge step forward for (the kids) to get a win. What they realized tonight is they don’t necessarily have to play perfect for things to go well. … Things weren’t perfect tonight. We shot ourselves in the foot a few times, but we overcame that.”
A good portion of the first half went in Blackford’s favor as the home was on top after marching down the field on its opening possession.
But McFarland hit Blake Crouch with a 30-yard touchdown pass to pull the Patriots to within one with 1:27 left in the half, and then the interception set them up to take the lead.Two shots at the end zone — an option pass by Cade Price and a toss down the left sideline by McFarland — fell incomplete, leaving just 1.3 seconds left. One more chance was just what JCHS needed.
Although rushers were on top of him almost as soon as he received the ball, McFarland (2-for-3, 50 yards, two TDs) was able to escape the pressure and loft the ball down the right sideline. Price went up and made the catch as a pair of Bruin defenders shoved him out of bounds.
After a short conversation, two officials ruled that without the push Price would have come down in bounds and awarded him the touchdown.
“That was poor judgment,” said Blackford coach Steve Rinker, noting that he should have run out the final 46 seconds of the first half rather than try to throw the ball downfield. “I put our kids in a tough spot. I thought we had the personnel that we could take advantage of some things, and we threw an interception. I’ll take the blame for that.
“We got put in a bad situation. They made a nice play. … You’ve got to give them credit for that as well.”
Blackford’s opening touchdown came by way of a 13-play drive, and the Patriots pulled even on a 6-yard TD run by Price (13 carries 48 yards) on the second play of the second quarter. The Bruins marched down the field again on a 12-play drive to reclaim the lead, and Jay County (1-1) responded again.
The Patriots pushed the ball to the 30-yard line, and that’s when Boozier called his first passing play of the game. He said he was leery of sending in that particular play because it was one of his “bread and butter” plays while he was at Blackford.
But as McFarland rolled to his right and looked down the field, he saw Blake Crouch (11 carries, 51 yards) come open down the middle. By the time McFarland’s pass fell into Crouch’s arms there wasn’t a Bruin within 15 yards of him and he cruised into the end zone to pull the Patriots to within one.
“I couldn’t believe how wide open Blake popped,” said Boozier. “And Brock McFarland did a great job of avoiding the rush at hit him.”
McFarland hit Price with the game-winning pass two minutes later, and both offenses struggled in the second half. Blackford had one opportunity to reclaim the advantage in the third quarter, but Matt Lillard was stopped inches short on fourth-and-3 from the 5-yard line.
Jacob Coffman ended antoher Bruin drive when he caused a fumble, picked up the ball and returned it just over 30 yards.
“We’ve got to make a play and put the ball in the end zone,” said Rinker. “We had some opportunities and just weren’t able to do that.
“There were just a lot of little things, a lot of almosts that we just weren’t able to capitalize on.”
Jay County managed just 37 yards of offense after the intermission and had no first downs until the final minute when McFarland converted a fourth-and-1 run to seal the game.
Blackford played the final three quarters without starting quarterback Jordan Daily after he suffered an ankle injury in the final minute of the first period. The Bruins gained 173 of their 192 total yards on the ground, led by a 15-carry, 93 yard performance from fullback Taylor Carpenter.[[In-content Ad]]