Pats' D tough on 'Cats (09/01/07)

BROOKVILLE - The defense just kept doing its job and waiting for the points to come. Late in the game, they did.

Jay County scored three times in the final 14 minutes of Friday night's high school football game and the defense turned in another stellar effort in a 19-0 victory over the Franklin County Wildcats.

It was the first win for the Patriots over Franklin County in three tries, and the school's first shutout since racking up three in a row during Olympic Athletic Conference play in 2002.

"Oh my goodness, we have a very good defense," said Patriot coach Shane Hill, whose squad held the Wildcats scoreless despite four first-half turnovers.

"I think it's pretty obvious if you watch us on film if your idea is to run the ball at us, you better come up with another plan. We've got seven and sometimes nine in the box that are really hard to run the ball against. ... It's a scary group and they do a great job."

Franklin County picked off four passes in the opening half, three of which were nabbed by Brandon Fisher, but could not convert them into points.

The Patriots gave up just 38 yards on 30 rushing attempts, and forced nine straight incompletions after Tyler Ripperger completed eight of his first 13 passes against them. Lance Franklin led the team with a monster effort of 16 tackles, including one sack, and Michael Jobe finished with nine tackles.

"Any time you have four turnovers like that you'd like to think you could take one or two of them and turn them into points," said first-year Franklin County coach Brice Sayne, whose team managed only 48 yards of offense in the second half. "But give them credit because their defense plays very well. ... They fly around the ball defensively, and they do a lot of good things."

And with the defense repeatedly halting the Wildcats, Jay County eventually put some points on the board.

One of the Wildcats' eight punts in the game set up the Patriots just three yards from midfield late in the third quarter, and a 17-yard pass from Aaron Daniels to Justin Mann pushed them into Franklin County territory. Two plays latter Daniels and Mann connected again, sort of.

Daniels threw deep down the right side to his senior receiver, and Mann dove for the ball. He got his arms under it, but the ball squirted free on the grass beneath him before he reeled it in again.

Initially the side judge made the correct call of an incomplete pass, but the back judge came in from the middle of the field to discus it and eventually it was ruled a complete pass. The reversal gave Jay County the ball at the 3-yard line, and Daniels punched it in for a touchdown on the next play with 1:17 left on the third-quarter clock.

But while their first touchdown may have come with some help, the Patriots did the rest on their own.

Putting his first-half quarterbacking struggles behind him, Daniels reversed roles as he picked off a Ripperger pass on the first play of the fourth quarter and returned it 45 yards up the right sideline before being yanked down at the 2-yard line. Again, he ran a quarterback sneak for the touchdown.

Two possessions later Daniels ran for 45 of his team-high 63 yards on an option keeper, then tossed to Mann for another 22 yards before scoring his third touchdown of the game on a 4-yard run.

"We gave him an extra pass blocker and still ran the ball out of that set," said Hill, who used a tight end in the second half to help alleviate some protections problems from the first. "I think that's a wrinkle we're going to be able to use now if teams are going to blitz."

After going 3-for-14 with four interceptions in the first half, Daniels completed all four of his second-half attempts for 87 yards. Mann had another huge game with five catches for 103 yards on a night in which the ground game produced an average of just 2.1 yards per carry.

"Give credit to the guys up front," said Hill. "They gave him the time he needed in the second half to find some people. And then when we got inside that goal line, the guys said ... "Let's hammer the ball right at them.'"[[In-content Ad]]