Patriots roll on homecoming (10/14/06)

Justin Mann had a huge catch at the end of the first half and a long punt return early in the second.

Dexter Shreve caught two touchdown passes. Billy Wellman threw three.

Sam Lyons had a team-high rushing total in his first major opportunity this season.

And the defense forced seven fumbles, recovered four and limited the visiting Greenfield-Central Cougars to just 1.8 yards per carry.

All of it left Shane Hill smiling as his Jay County football team defeated 37-14 in its final regular-season game.

"This is the game we needed going into the sectional," said Hill, whose team will visiting Connersville Friday at 7 p.m. "We're clicking on all cylinders. ... This is exactly the confidence booster we needed after last week."

Coming off of a 70-13 loss to Indianapolis Cathedral, the Patriots trailed 6-0 after the opening quarter. But, they outscored Greenfield-Central 17-0 in the second and pushed to a 31-6 lead en route to the 23-point win.

The victory pushed the team's record to 5-4 on the year, with all of those five wins coming in the last six games. It also guaranteed Jay County its first back-to-back seasons of .500 or better since 1988.

"We're real proud of the win," said Hill, whose squad finished 7-4 a year ago. "The seniors deserved a night like this, and the entire team played well. Once we got through that first quarter and got over some of the rocky stuff all phases of our team started to click. We had a great team effort. 5-4 looks a lot better than 4-5."

The Cougars (1-7) - their lone win came by forfeit - drove 70 yards on six plays on their opening drive, but had no answer for Jay County over the next two quarters.

Wellman and Shreve hooked up on each of the first two touchdowns of 35 and 7 yards respectively. Shreve made an outstanding move to score the first catching the ball at about the 20-yard line and side-stepping a would-be tackler at the 15 on his way to the end zone.

Mann, who caught Wellman's third TD on an 11-yard pass midway through the third quarter, made an outstanding catch amidst three defenders on a 38 yard pass with 12.2 seconds remaining in the first half. It set up a 37-yard field goal just inside the right upright by Kaleb Carpenter for a 17-6 halftime lead.

After the Patriots stopped Greenfield-Central deep in its own territory on the first drive of the second half, Mann weaved his way down the left sideline for a 44-yard punt return which set up a 1-yard TD dive by Corey Comer.

"The thing that we're starting to see from this group is that we have play makers all over the field," said Hill, mentioning Comer, Jobe, Lyons and Shreve. "Justin Mann has been steady throughout the whole entire year. If we need a big play and we need some big yards we're looking for No. 8 ..."

The Cougars showed the ability to move the ball on the opening drive, but kept putting it on the ground the rest of the way.

"We had too many turnovers," said first-year coach Roger Dodson, whose team will visit Muncie Central Friday. "I'd hate to think back to how many we had.

"When you're in the situation we are, you're battling to get a win, you get to the point where you press a little bit."[[In-content Ad]]