Jay holds on against Knights (10/16/04)

PORTLAND — Those one-point games were just too stressful. So, the Patriots went ahead and gave themselves a little more breathing room Friday: two points.

In yet another home game which came down to the final play, the Jay County football team managed to hold off the South Dearborn Knights for an 18-16 victory.

The Patriots had played two one-point games at home previously this season. They lost 30-29 to Muncie Southside on a missed extra-point with no time on the clock, and defeated Connersville 21-20 a week later thanks to a touchdown pass on the game’s final play.

After Friday night’s victory coach Shane Hill spoke to his team about the 2000 Jay County squad, which had just one regular-season win before upsetting Muncie Central in the first round of the sectional en route to a berth in the championship game. Hill’s Patriots will visit Class 4A No. 3 Muncie Central (9-0) next week in first-round sectional action at 7 p.m.

“We had to have this one,” added Hill, who was on the sidelines as a Muncie Central assistant coach for that 2000 sectional game. “We couldn’t go into the sectional losing this game after losing the Culver game and losing some of the close games we have. This one had to be won.

“It also gives us come confidence. They were 6-2 coming in.

“My hats off to these kids. I hope this senior class is around for many weeks to come.”

“This is huge — huge,” said junior Justin Gilbert, who etched his name in the record book with a 204-yard rushing effort. “This is a momentum builder. We’ll be ready for it.”

South Dearborn left with its third loss of the season, but only after another wild fourth quarter at Harold Schutz Stadium.

The Knights (6-3) had a chance to tie the game after a 3-yard touchdown run by Adam Wheat 1:37 into the final period, but failed on the 2-point conversion pass and trailed 18-16.

The Patriots (3-6) had trouble moving the ball and were forced to punt, but got help thanks to a pair of South Dearborn penalties. The visitors were called for holding and unsportsmanlike conduct and had to punt back to Jay County.

With a chance to run out the clock, the Patriots first threw a clock-stopping incomplete pass and then committed back-to-back holding penalties which eventually put them at fourth-and-33.

It looked as if the Knights would get the ball back with two minutes on the clock and kicker Mike King poised to boot the winning field goal. Instead they tried unsuccesfully to block the punt and tackled punter Trent Bailey in the process to earn a 15-yard roughing the kicker penalty.

That miscue gave Jay County a first down, and to add insult to injury South Dearborn was hit with another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for 15 more yards.

The Knights still got the ball back with 12.4 seconds left and managed to complete a pass. But, their last-gasp try from the Jay County 45-yard line fell incomplete when Corey Comer hit quarterback Kevin Hetzer as he threw the ball.

Both coaches said the mistakes will need to disappear if their teams expect to play beyond next week.

“We killed ourselves with penalties, but they put themselves in a hole with the penalties they had,” said Hill, whose team was flagged seven times for 65 yards. “Then they had to give us the ball back. They would’ve had the ball back down two points and they had just finished driving the ball down our throats two consecutive series’. ...”

“There’s no question (we need to clean up the penalties),” said South Dearborn coach Paul Ketcham, who saw his team give up 85 yards on nine penalties — 50 in the fourth quarter. “In a 4A sectional we’ll be putting our shoulder pads away next Friday if we play like that again. No doubt.”

Jay County jumped in front thanks to a couple of big plays.

Gilbert started the scoring with a 65-yard run as part of his 106-yard first quarter. Just 38 seconds into the second period Cory Locke hit Mark Kelly with an 86-yard touchdown pass for the Patriots’ longest scoring play of the season.

Locke went 5-of-11 passing for 115 yards. Kelly caught three of those passes for 97 yards.

“We saw that they were biting on the outs — the safeties were — and we just knew we could get outside of them,” said Kelly. “Cory threw a great ball and all I did was run under it and catch it. That was it.”

Gilbert added a 15-yard scoring run with 2:51 left in the first half for an 18-0 Patriot lead.

Before this season, a Jay County running back had rushed for more than 200 yards in a game just twice. Gilbert has now done it twice in one season after putting up 202 yards against Muncie Southside earlier this year.

He had 189 yards in the first half and would likely have shattered Robin Finch’s single-game school record of 236 yards set in 1981. But, he was limited to just five carries in the second half because of a right shoulder injury.

“We had a great week of practice,” said Gilbert, who had run for just 62 yards in the last two weeks after notching 300-plus against Southside and Connersville. “Our line pulled together this week. ... It’s all them. They’re the reason I got 200 yards again.”

South Dearborn got back in the game with two scores in the final 35 seconds of the first half.

The Knights marched down the field with short passes, and Hetzer hit Garret Rollins for a 14-yard score with 35 seconds remaining. Jay County chose to go for more points instead of taking a knee after getting the ball back, and fumbled on its second play.

Hetzer completed one pass, and King hit a 35-yard field goal as time expired to cut the deficit to 18-0. Wheat’s second-half touchdown gave South Dearborn a chance, but they could not complete the comeback.

“You can’t get down by 18 points against anybody,” said Ketcham. “Jay County played well. They came out in the first quarter and played well. They didn’t play well in the second half, but we didn’t capitalize on it.

“We never felt comfortable tonight. We made some things happen because of the pass, but we just didn’t finish the game. We didn’t finish. We had our chances.”

Hetzer went 10-of-19 through the air for South Dearborn for 179 yards. Dustin Kitchell carried the ball 21 times for 87 yards.[[In-content Ad]]