Stigleman, Jay rout SA

BERNE — Last season, the Starfires blew out the Patriots on their home field.
Friday night, Jay County returned the favor.
Sophomore Cole Stigleman scored three times in the first quarter as the Jay County High School football team shut out South Adams, 32-0.
“It is a great feeling to get a win,” said Stigleman, who caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Holton Hill and had two rushing TDs inside the 2-yard line. “Now we have a chance of going .500, and that’s a big deal.”
South Adams coach Grant Moser, whose team fell to 1-5 (0-4 Allen County Athletic Conference), didn’t expect the first 24 minutes to play out the way it did.
“It was a rough first half,” said Moser, the Starfires’ first-year coach. “We thought we would be competitive in this game.
“This is embarrassing for South Adams football. We spend all this time and energy and all these resources on the game of football … we have to keep working to get better.”
Jay County (3-4, 2-3 ACAC) was in control from the opening series. South Adams got the ball at its own 40 yard line, gained just 7 yards and was forced to punt.
The Patriots needed just three plays to hit the scoreboard when Hill connected with Stigleman on an out route on the left side of the field.
Stigleman turned upfield at the 32-yard line in front of the Starfire sideline and ran untouched to the end zone.
South Adams fumbled three plays into its next drive, and Jay County recovered at its own 46-yard line. Two plays later, Hill found Aaron Neal on a dig route over the middle, and he took it inside the Starfire 10-yard line to the 6.
Levi Hummel bowled up the middle to the 1-yard line, and Stigleman punched it in on the next play for his second touchdown.
Stigleman had a dozen carries for 45 yards, and Hill completed four of his seven pass attempts for 134 yards.
Both Stigleman and Millspaugh praised the offensive line for producing more than 400 yards from scrimmage.
“Our offensive line, they don’t get near enough credit,” Millspaugh said. The Patriots had 282 rushing yards, their highest total of the season. “Trap was good tonight. Levi had (118 yards), 19 carries and not one negative play. That speaks volumes for our offensive line.”
The Starfires punted on their next drive, and again the Patriots needed three plays to reach the end zone.
On first-and-10 from the Jay County 37, Drew Huffman took the handoff on a power run to the left. He broke through the line of scrimmage, cut across the field into space down the right sideline before South Adams senior Drew LeFever chased him down and tackled him at the Starfire 6-yard line. Huffman, who missed the last two games with an ankle injury, had 85 yards on nine carries.
Two plays later Stigleman scored from the 2-yard line for his third touchdown.
Alex Stout and Huffman also had rushing scores for the Patriots, both of which were from the 1-yard line. Huffman’s came late in the second quarter to give Jay County a 26-0 lead, and Stout tallied his first career touchdown with 22 seconds in the third quarter.
But just as effective as Jay County’s offense was — it averaged more than seven yards per play — its defense was equally as stingy. Jay County forced four fumbles, had one sack and held the Starfires to 105 total yards, 31 of which came before halftime.
“Defense has been coming,” said Millspaugh, whose team held a high-powered Woodlan offense to 21 points last week. “(South Adams) got down (in our zone) a couple times, our kids dug in, they competed, got some turnovers, got some stops and kept the goose egg on the board.”
Three of the Starfires’ four turnovers led to points for Jay County.
“You can’t win the game with turnovers,” said Moser. “That is something we have been harping on them, which is frustrating because we’ve been working on them in practice.
“It’s showing our youth more and more in those key situations.”