JCHS tops Falcons (09/29/07)

On homecoming, in front of the largest crowd of the season, coach Shane Hill was happy to take a win regardless of what it looked like.

Lance Franklin and Michael Jobe each went over 80 rushing yards for the second straight game, and Franklin made some key plays on defense as the Jay County High School Football team pulled away for a 40-19 victory over the visiting Winchester Golden Falcons.

"Sometimes you've got to win ugly as long as you continue to win," said Hill, whose team is now 5-2 after splitting its first four games. "It's nice when you have mistakes like we had tonight to come out with a victory. ...

"You want to play your best ball when tournament time comes, so we've got two weeks left to really polish things off and get things ready."

Franklin, the team's top tackler on the year, played a big part in polishing off the Golden Falcons (4-3) Friday night.

After Jay County took at 14-0 lead, Winchester pulled within a point in the second quarter. The Patriots went back up by eight, but the visitors seemed primed to strike again.

A couple of intermediate passes from Brock Morrison followed by Travis Wickersham's 16-yard option run around the left side had the Golden Falcons knocking on the door. They pushed all the way to the 4-yard line before being knocked back to face fourth-and-3 from the 5-yard line.

Morrison dropped back to pass on the play, but Franklin was in the backfield in a flash to force harmless incompletion.

A 42-yard touchdown strike from Billy Wellman to Dexter Shreve sent the Patriots up 27-13, and two drives later Franklin was in the backfield again on a fourth-and-3 try by Winchester to drag Wickersham down for a 1-yard loss.

"The one at the goal line I think was a turning point in the ball game," said Hill of Franklin's efforts, which resulted in a team-high nine tackles to go along with an interception. "We were still up in the game, but if they punch that thing in and it may be a different ball game."

Franklin also had a 3-yard TD run in the first quarter as part of a 13-carry, 82-yard night. Michael Jobe scored on runs of 3, 4 and 3 yards and finished with 18 carries for 81 yards.

Both backs finished with more than 100 yards on the ground in last week's 47-9 win over Connersville.

"We're getting less people in the box," said Hill of his team's recent rushing success. "They had five people in the box sometimes with three on each side covering our two wide receivers, so we ran the football. ... When they start bringing in seven and start blitzing people, that's when we can go to the air ...

"It's a numbers game when you run this type of offense."

The team's other touchdown came from senior Kyle Cook, who scored on a 5-yard fumble return. Jobe and Andrew Lancaster finished behind Franklin with seven tackles apiece.

While Jay County worked the ground game, Winchester had success through the air following some early struggles. After starter Taylor Mock was picked off on each of his first two passing attempts, the Golden Falcons turned to Morrison.

The senior delivered scoring strikes of 42 and 69 yards to Wickersham and Shane Peacock respectively to pull Winchester within a point in the opening minute of the second half.

However, Jay County outscored the Golden Falcons 26-6 the rest of the way.

"One of the things that we've been focusing on is staying in the game even when we've been down," said Winchester coach Ryan Vermilion. "We came back and made it 14-13, and we kept clawing and scratching back. We just made too many mistakes this evening to come out on top."

Morrison added a 49-yard scoring pass to Jaysn Murphy in the fourth quarter and finished and impressive 8-for-10 for 245 yards. Three different Winchester receivers finished with 50 or more yards, with Peacock hauling in three receptions for 111.

"We've got a pretty good balanced attack," said Vermilion. "When you take away one you've got to worry about defending the other. We noticed they were loading us up in the box ... and we were able to hit them deep a few times."[[In-content Ad]]