Rebels blast Jay Co.

Scoring has been an issue for the Patriots all year.
They had put up seven points or fewer in three of their four games. That pattern continued on Friday night.
The Muncie Southside Rebels limited Jay County to less than 100 yards of total offense for the second straight week and shut out the home team 27-0.
“What we have to decide offensively is if we need to alter the technique for the linemen to make them more successful, or to give other people opportunities to play,” said JCHS football coach Steve Boozier, whose team averaged less than two yards per carry. “We’ve got to block more consistently.
“We made strides defensively. We got beat, basically, on three big plays. … It was a situation where we got beat by athleticism on a few plays, we didn’t get physically manhandled.
“I think with the defensive adjustments we made we found some things the kids were comfortable with.”
The Patriots (1-4) got some big special teams plays to put them in position to score, including a recovery of a squib kick to open the game. They moved the ball inside the 20-yard line, but Southside stopped them when they went for it on fourth-and-6 from the 16-yard line.
Jay County responded by stopping the Rebels (3-2) on their first drive, or so they thought.Southside lined up to punt on fourth-and-3 from their own 23-yard line, but instead punter Coty Reynolds ran a fake. He took off left to successfully pick up the first down, and then crossed the field all the way back to the right sideline for a 58-yard gain.
After the game, Mike Paul, who has coached the Rebels for 33 years, said the “gutsy” call wasn’t his. Reynolds made the decision to run the fake on his own.
“There was one guy on (gunner) McKenzee Nash and I knew he would pick up a block for me, so I just went for it,” said Reynolds, a senior, who finished with 73 yards rushing. “I didn’t see anyone else out there.”
Reynolds scored on a 1-yard run five plays later, and Southside took a 14-0 lead when he caught a 29-yard TD pass from Jackie Thomas with 1:41 left in the second quarter.
Both teams got the ball inside the 25-yard line in the second quarter, but neither was able to score.
“That fake punt really did put us behind the eight-ball and we had to play from behind,” said Boozier.
Special teams again put the Patriots in good field position to start the season half as Cade Price returned the first kickoff 50 yards to the Southside 33. They got as close as the 8-yard line before getting pushed back, and Alex Dunn missed a 30-yard field goal attempt just wide to the right.
Jay County never got inside the red zone again while the Rebels scored on a 60-yard pass from Thomas to Tim Barrett and a 10-yard run by Nash.
“I was still scared 14-0, and they were down here ready to score,” said Paul, whose team battled Delta in a 23-14 loss last week. “It was just pretty sloppy I think. We never really got any running game going. We had to resort to double moves …
“I don’t think any of our kids were happy with our performance. It’s a win, but it was pretty sloppy.”
Thomas completed led the Rebels with 132 yards through the air on nine completions, five of which went to Barrett for 97 yards. Nash added 95 yards on 17 carries.
In addition to his long kickoff return, Price also executed a quick kick in the third quarter that Drew Houck downed at the Southside 1-yard line. He picked up 66 of the Patriots 79 total yards.
“He does keep running hard,” said Boozier of the sophomore. “That’s going to pay off.
“That was a heck of a quick kick. We executed that about as perfectly as you could.”
Jay County has been shut out at least once in 10 of the last 11 seasons, the lone exception coming in 2008. Pendleton Heights blanked the Patriots 42-0 last season.[[In-content Ad]]