Red zone failures crush Jay (09/03/05)

BROOKVILLE — Their star running back was impressive.

But every time they needed a big stop, the Wildcats’ defense answered as well.

The Franklin County Wildcats denied Jay County twice on fourth-and-short plays in the red zone, came up with a big fumble late in the first half and got yet another outstanding effort from junior tailback Adam Kaiser for a 20-0 victory over the Patriots Friday night.

“Our offensive line said, ‘“Hey coach, we can get it,’ and I have faith in them,” said JCHS coach Shane Hill of the short-yardage plays. “I have confidence in them. They’ve really worked hard to get to where they’re at. We rode on their backs. Unfortunately we came up a little short.”

Jay County (1-2) trailed 12-0 at the half, but held the Wildcats on their first second-half drive. It then moved the ball quickly inside the Franklin County 10-yard line on runs of 21 and 17 yards from Justin Gilbert and 24 yards by Steven Castillo.

Three plays later the Patriots found themselves with a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, but failed to convert as the Franklin County defense stood up Castillo about a half-yard short of the goal line.

A similar situation came up later in the third quarter as Jay County marched the ball to the 11-yard line on its second drive of the third quarter. However, a 33-yard pass from Cory Locke to Casey Waters and a 13-yard run by Michael Jobe went for naught.

Franklin County (3-0) pushed the Patriots to fourth-and-3 at the 11-yard line and stopped Locke a half-yard short of the sticks again on a quarterback keeper.

“Offense wins games and defense wins championships,” said Kent Grider, whose team also stripped Castillo of the ball as Jay County was marching down the field in the closing minutes of the first half. “That’s kind of cliché, but you saw what happened tonight. Our defense stepped up to the plate. I’m proud of them.”

Franklin County has now won its opening three games by a combined 107-7, having also beaten Muncie Southside 42-0 and Connersville 45-7.

The Patriots had the ball in the red zone four times in the contest, only to give up the ball on downs on each occasion. They failed to score despite racking up nearly 300 yards of total offense, including 107 on 17 carries from Gilbert for his second straight 100-yard game.

“When you’ve got (that much) offense, you usually think that’s enough to win a ball game,” said Hill. “Unfortunately we just couldn’t put it in the end zone.

“We were there five or six times, including the one from the 1-yard line. And you’ve got to score from the 1-yard line. You can’t give that one away. I think that is the story of the ball game.”

Kaiser carried the load for the Wildcats, although their first touchdown came in fairly surprising fashion.

Quarterback Mitch Grider, who had completed just four passes in the first two games combined, hit on each of his first four tries against the Patriots. Two of those came on a scoring driving spanning the first and second quarters, including a 32-yard touchdown pass to Dustin Burk.

From there, Franklin County turned it over to Kaiser, who picked up 131 yards in 23 first-half carries. His 8-yard touchdown run with 3:28 left in the half gave Franklin County its 12-0 lead.

Kaiser kept up his 200-plus-yard rushing average, finishing with 219 yards on 36 carries for a total of 640 yards in three games this year.

He got some help in the second half from Richie Schultz. All of his eight carries came after the break as he finished with 84 yards on the ground, including the Wildcats‚ final score on a 5-yard run with 7:10 left in the game.

Grider finished 5-of-9 for 76 yards through the air.

“He’s going to be huge for us,” said Kent Grider of Kaiser. “You also saw Schultz could be huge. You also saw our quarterback could throw pretty effectively.

“We can pass the ball. We have effective receivers. We’re just not going to throw 40 times a game. We need to throw A) when people don’t expect it and B) effectively when we do. I think we did that tonight.”

In addition to Gilbert’s yards, Castillo ran 16 times for 68 yards and Locke went 4-of-13 for 90 yards. Corey Comer had a pair of receptions for 26 yards.

Hill said he was happy with the team’s effort, even though the outcome didn’t go the Patriots’ way.

“I’m real proud of our kids,” Hill said. “They played their hearts out and left everything on the field. I think people saw that with the fatigue that we had. It wasn’t because we’re out of shape. It’s because they were just giving it their all.

“I’m really proud of my kids. They never quit, they never died. That attitude I think is going to win us a lot of ball games this year.”[[In-content Ad]]