Rally in Randolph (10/04/2008)

WINCHESTER - The Patriots have never lost to their nearest Randolph County neighbor. A second-half rally Friday night allowed them to keep that record in tact.

After falling behind by 19 points in the first half, the Jay County High School football team put up 25 unanswered in the second for a 32-26 victory over the Winchester Golden Falcons.

The Patriots scored three times in the third quarter to pull even, took the lead on a three-play drive featuring two passes from Billy Wellman to Dexter Shreve in the fourth and then held off Winchester's final drive for the win.

"It helps when we know we've got an offense that can score quickly," said JCHS coach Shane Hill, whose team is 3-4. "When you're down in a hole like that and you have the offense that we have, you don't really start to panic because we know we can score in chunks."

That was most clear when the Patriots took the ball with 3:17 remaining and the game tied at 26.

Before sending Wellman onto the field, Hill had a short conversation with the quarterback who came into the night averaging 289 passing yards per game.

Wellman responded with by far his longest completion of the game, a 47-yard strike down the left sideline to Dexter Shreve. After a 1-yard run, Wellman hit Shreve, the No. 4 receiver in the state, again, this time on a 14-yard slant for what proved to be the winning touchdown.

"I said, 'Be smart with this ball, but we haven't taken a shot downfield really," said Hill. "He put the ball in the right spot. Dexter made a great adjustment on the ball ... That was a big play for us."

Adam Chalfant returned the ensuing kickoff 37 yards into Jay County territory, and Winchester quarterback Taylor Mock converted a fourth-and-11 with a 24-yard pass to Matt Williams. But Mock then missed on four straight passes from the 22-yard line in the final minute - his best chance was a pass on the run which flew just over the hands of Ryan Miley in the end zone - to end the game.

"Our game plan was to run the clock, get the ball in as many runners' hands as we could and really use a lot of misdirection and option to make things happen. And that doesn't move the ball very quick," said Winchester coach Ryan Vermilion of his team's final drive. "We had to put some athletes in, spread them out a little bit and take advantage of our formations to get people open. We did that ... but we just missed a couple balls there late and weren't able to finish it out."

After a dismal first half that saw the Patriots turn the ball over three times, they came out on a mission in the second.

It took them just four plays to get in the end zone with senior Lance Franklin (eight carries, 113 yards) scoring on a 42-yard run. Wellman completed the second JCHS drive with a TD pass to Adam Garringer on fourth-and-4 from the 19-yard line.

A 27-yard punt return by Scott Houston set up the third Jay County scoring drive of the third quarter. It lasted just three plays, with Wellman plowing over Matt Friend at the 1-yard line and reaching the ball across the stripe for the tying TD.

While the offense came up big to score on four of its five second-half possession, Hill was just as impressed with the defense.

The second half against the Golden Falcons (2-5) marked the first time all year Jay County held a team scoreless in the second half. It was the first time the Patriots put together back-to-back scoreless quarters since the second and third in week two against Blackford.

They limited Winchester to just 65 second-half yards, and especially locked down on 6-foot-3-inch, 230-pound senior Adam Chalfant. He scored two TDs - on a 5-yard run and a 75-yard reception - and racked up 62 yards rushing in the first half, but was limited to five carries for six yards and three receptions for 7 yards after the break.

"Hats off to the defense," said Hill, noting that his team refocused on fundamentals at halftime. "We shut them out in the second half. ... That's the type of defense that we've been looking for. We played with emotion tonight. That's the first time I've seen our guys jumping up and down, smacking each other on the helmet ... we were excited and emotional about playing this game tonight."

Mock went 8-of-18 passing for Winchester, and each of his first two passes went for TDs. He hit Kyle Deboy with a 13-yard pass in the first quarter, and then Chalfant took a short pass and turned it into the 75-yard score. Cody Dull scored the Golden Falcons' final TD on a 14-yard run with 40 seconds to go in the first half.

Jay County is now 10-0 all time against Winchester. The closest games between the two schools prior to Friday night came in 1977 and '78, both 35-14 wins by the Patriots.

"We played with a 4A school with the No. 2 passer in the state," said Vermilion. "We were able to do some things offensively and defensively pretty well. We're really proud of the kids.

"We've got to take this intensity and level of play throughout the rest of the season. Because we're playing a 1A and then 2A throughout, not 4A. If we can play at the level of a 4A team throughout the tournament, we're going to go far."

Wellman scored the Patriots' lone first-half TD on an 11-yard run.

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