Jay stumbles against Leo

Leo moved the ball with ease Friday night, racking up 332 yards and scoring 35 points in the opening half.
On the other sideline, Jay County had trouble getting its offense going, totaling a mere 41 yards through the first 24 minutes.
The Lions broke through tackles all over the field en route to 452 total yards in a 42-7 clubbing of the host Patriots, spoiling Jay County’s senior-night activities.
“(Tackling) continues to be our Achilles heel,” said JCHS coach Tim Millspaugh, whose team fell to 2-6 on the season and 1-4 in the Allen County Athletic Conference. “When you’re facing a team that is definitely more athletic than you … and you stop your feet, that’s really bad. And when we did that it really hurt us.”
Leo (6-2, 5-0 ACAC) scored on each of its first five possessions. Tyler Hensinger found the end zone on a 1-yard run to cap off a 17-play drive that covered 60 yards. On the next drive, the Lions converted three fourth-down plays, including a fourth-and-20 when junior quarterback Kray Klopfenstein threw a fade route down the right sideline to Gunner Brown, who kept his feet down and went out of bounds at the Patriot 1-yard line.
“He’s got great field awareness and body presence as well,” Leo coach Jared Sauder said of Brown. “He’s turning into a very good receiver as a junior. He understands football and knows what to do.”
Gunner caught four of Klopfenstein’s passes for 73 yards and two touchdowns. Klopfenstein finished 9-of-12 passing for 146 yards, connecting with Brown twice in the second quarter for scores.
“They’re young kids,” Sauder said of his quarterback and receiver combo. “This is their first year of varsity experience and they are getting better and better. We are seeing the result of that improvement with their reps in practice and in the game.”
Leo continued to pour on the points, with Jordan Hissong scoring on the Lions’ second drive when he went through the line of scrimmage, bounced around the outside and ran down the sideline for a 79-yard score. Hensinger added another score from 10-yards out late in the second quarter, and Mason Kern found the end zone nearly three minutes into the fourth.
Jay County didn’t get the football until there was less than four minutes left in the opening quarter, and fumbled the kickoff after Leo’s first score. Two plays later, Alec Lewis picked off a Klopfenstein pass at the JCHS 13, and ran all the way to the Leo 45 before he was brought down.
“I was really proud of Alec because we’ve had some issues at corner,” said Millspaugh, whose team closes the regular season Friday at Heritage.
On the ensuing drive the Patriots were pushed back to the 50 and were forced to punt. On its next possession, though, Jay County marched into Leo territory thanks to Cole Stigleman’s 48 yards rushing on five plays. The freshman fullback was held to just 21 yards for the remainder of the game.
But as the Patriots got down to the Lions’ 36, quarterback Nick Clemens was hit as he threw on a fourth-and-5 play, turning the ball over on downs.
In the second half, though, Jay County turned to the air, something it wasn’t able to do in the first half.
“We tried to throw it early but our pass protection was awful,” said Millspaugh, who has implemented a spread-type offense to a normally run-heavy scheme. “We’ve made strides within the last three weeks with that, and to see what we did in the first half was disappointing.
“We talked a lot about that at halftime and got some stuff fixed.”
After punting and holding the Lions to a three-and-out, Jay County marched down inside the red zone, aided by three Leo penalties. But on a fourth-and-goal from the 7-yard line, Clemens’ pass was deflected away from Aaron Neal.
Jay County finally broke the shutout late in the fourth quarter, when Joey Link connected with Levi Stant on a wheel route for a 32-yard touchdown.
“A lot of times that tends to be open,” Millspaugh said of the wheel route. “That was nice, from a confidence standpoint, not to get shut out.
“I was glad it was a senior throwing it and a senior caught it.”