Starfires defeat Patriots

After last week’s overtime loss to Adams Central, during which South Adams squandered a 14-point halftime lead, coach Rick Burkhalter challenged his football team to finish in the second half.
The Starfires responded Friday night.
South Adams scored 21 points in the second half on three Jay County turnovers, spoiling the Patriots’ homecoming with a 41-12 victory.
“We finally came out, played like a family and turned it around in the second half,” said Burkhalter, whose Starfire squad is now 2-5 on the season and 2-3 in Allen County Athletic Conference play. “We haven’t been able to do that all year. I’m proud of these kids.”
Trailing 20-12 at halftime, Jay County (2-5, 1-3 ACAC) fumbled on the second-half kickoff at its own 35, leading to Skylar Schoch’s second touchdown of the evening.
On the ensuing drive, the Patriots marched 14-plays in more than seven minutes, scoring on a 5-yard quarterback sweep when Joey Link dived into the end zone for the score.
Jay County forced a fumble on South Adams’ next possession, but the Starfire defense stood tall as the Patriots managed only four plays, seeing their drive halt on a fourth-and-1 from their own 45.
SAHS senior quarterback Derek Wanner took the Starfires down the field for another score, running the ball four times before Kyle Cox found the end zone on a reverse — it gave South Adams a 34-18 lead — for the first of his two scores.
The next drive for Jay County lasted only two plays as the Patriots’ struggles continued in stark contrast from the opening half.
Schoch, who has been nursing a shoulder injury all week and didn’t play for the majority of the first quarter, picked off Nick Clemens’ only pass attempt at the JCHS 23-yard line.
“I pretty much saw the crossing route and I just sat there,” Schoch said of his fourth-quarter interception. “He threw it right to me.”
Six plays later, Wanner completed his second pass to Cox for the final score of the contest. Wanner finished 2-of-4 passing for 17 yards, and added 145 yards on the ground.
“It’s never good to start the second half with a turnover,” JCHS coach Tim Millspaugh said. “When we got a turnover, they stopped us. We didn’t even convert a first down. When they got a turnover they scored.
“The turnover is not ideal, but they came away with points and we didn’t.”
Drew LeFever (16 carries for 87 yards), Schoch (13 carries for 97 yards) and Wanner powered through Jay County’s defense, breaking tackles at the line of scrimmage when it appeared the Patriots had them bottled up.
Burkhalter, South Adams’ second-year coach, said the offensive trio is the catalyst for the Stars moving the football.
“Those are our three-headed monster for us,” he said. “They are talented and that is what our offense is predicated on. That’s the way it should be in this (option) offense we run.”
Millspaugh, whose team has dropped back-to-back games for the second time this season, said it was the basics on defense that hurt his team the most
“Our fundamentals were bad,” he said. “We’re not tackling (and) we’re not running our feet through contact …
“It’s very frustrating that we continue to see those mistakes week in and week out.”
Offensively, Jay County was able to move the ball in the first half. The Patriots ran the football 22 times for 201 yards, including 149 yards by Cole Stigleman, but managed just 107 yards after intermission.
Stigleman, who has stepped up for an injured Drew Huffman, had his third-straight game of more than 100 yards and scored the first two touchdowns for the Patriots.
The freshman fullback broke a 53-yard run on Jay County’s opening drive, capping it off with a 2-yard score. Later in the second quarter on first-and-10 from the Patriot 38, Stigleman was all but bottled up at the line of scrimmage on a trap play, but the youngster had the wherewithal to run around the left side and up field for a 62-yard score.
He finished with a game-high 194 yards on 18 carries.