August 21, 2021 at 5:16 a.m.
Running from history
Jay County racks up 300-plus rushing yards in thrashing Blackford to snap 10-game losing streak
Running from history
It took less than four minutes to forget about 2020.
Forty-four more dominating minutes later, the winless season became a distant memory.
The Jay County High School football team rushed for more than 300 yards, allowed fewer than 100 yards of offense and ushered in the Grant Zgunda era of Patriot football with a resounding 33-6 victory against the Blackford Bruins on Friday night at Harold E. Schutz Memorial Stadium.
“It’s amazing,” said JCHS senior Quinn Faulkner, who rushed for more than half of the Patriots’ 326 yards. “Go out there and kick a team’s butt (and) get some steam rolling.
“We have to go into next week, start building off of what we did tonight and keep winning.”
The victory for Jay County, which scored half as many points as it did in all of its 0-9 2020 season, ended a 10-game losing streak, the longest such stretch in program history. The Patriots’ last win was a 46-21 triumph over the Heritage Patriots on Oct. 18, 2019.
“Overall I’m proud of what we were able to do,” said Zgunda, who was making his debut as the Patriot coach after more than two decades as coach and then athletics director at Delta. “Game one, you just never know what’s going to happen. It’s nice to get a win.”
Jay County (1-0), which travels to Huntington North on Friday, started the opening scoring drive on its own 36. Facing third-and-11 from the JCHS 45 yard line five plays later, Faulkner set the tone for the offense on the game’s longest play from scrimmage.
Quarterback Sam Dunlavy dropped back appearing to pass, then handed off to Faulkner on the delayed draw. Faulkner rumbled his way up the middle for a gain of 49, getting tripped up at the Blackford 6.
“The offensive line blocked pretty well and that helps a lot,” he said. “Just made some cuts and got into the open field.”
Faulkner had rushes of 49, 10, 11 and 20 yards just on the delayed draw.
“They were blitzing some (line)backers on third-and-long,” Zgunda said. “It’s kind of a good third-and-long play where we can kick out the blitzing backer and there’s a lane for Quinn.
“With his athletic ability, you get him one-on-one with people, that’s at our advantage. It’s one of those things that worked tonight because of what the situation was. Quinn, when he’s got some open field he’s a weapon.”
Caleb Hale was second in rushing for the Patriots with 70 yards on eight carries, including a 42-yard TD in the first quarter that put JCHS on top, 12-0.
Shawn Fisher notched his first career touchdown, a 12-yard run with 7:08 to go in the fourth quarter for a 33-0 advantage.
“We were able to move the ball, we just had a lot of mistakes that ended drives for us that we couldn’t capitalize,” Zgunda said. Jay County had 363 yards of total offense — more than any game in 2020 and the most since racking up 434 yards in the 2019 win against Heritage.
Blackford’s offense had trouble stopping 6-foot, 3-inch, 344-pound senior lineman Sean Guntle. Combined with Hunter Young, Wyatt Bergman and Austin Schoenlein, they often disrupted the Bruins’ wing-T offense. More times than not, the Jay County defensive line was making contact with quarterbacks Braxton Malott and Bryan Hernandez before, or just as, they were handing off to the running backs.
“They were dogs out there,” Faulkner said of his defensive teammates. “They got the job done.”
Blackford, which at half had just 26 rushing yards, finished with a measly 65 yards of total offense. Forty-two of those yards came on one play — the Bruins’ only score of the night and perhaps the Patriots’ only defensive blemish of the evening.
On one of those plays where Jay County disrupted the handoff, Hernandez wasn’t able to get the ball to one of his running backs. He scrambled and located a seam down the left side of the field. He went untouched the rest of the way into the end zone.
“The defense played lights out,” Zgunda said. “I thought we did a good job. Special teams were decent … Overall, for game one, I’m happy.
“Any time you get a win … after you’ve coached this many years, that’s all that matters. You just move on and try to work on the things you need to work on.”
Forty-four more dominating minutes later, the winless season became a distant memory.
The Jay County High School football team rushed for more than 300 yards, allowed fewer than 100 yards of offense and ushered in the Grant Zgunda era of Patriot football with a resounding 33-6 victory against the Blackford Bruins on Friday night at Harold E. Schutz Memorial Stadium.
“It’s amazing,” said JCHS senior Quinn Faulkner, who rushed for more than half of the Patriots’ 326 yards. “Go out there and kick a team’s butt (and) get some steam rolling.
“We have to go into next week, start building off of what we did tonight and keep winning.”
The victory for Jay County, which scored half as many points as it did in all of its 0-9 2020 season, ended a 10-game losing streak, the longest such stretch in program history. The Patriots’ last win was a 46-21 triumph over the Heritage Patriots on Oct. 18, 2019.
“Overall I’m proud of what we were able to do,” said Zgunda, who was making his debut as the Patriot coach after more than two decades as coach and then athletics director at Delta. “Game one, you just never know what’s going to happen. It’s nice to get a win.”
Jay County (1-0), which travels to Huntington North on Friday, started the opening scoring drive on its own 36. Facing third-and-11 from the JCHS 45 yard line five plays later, Faulkner set the tone for the offense on the game’s longest play from scrimmage.
Quarterback Sam Dunlavy dropped back appearing to pass, then handed off to Faulkner on the delayed draw. Faulkner rumbled his way up the middle for a gain of 49, getting tripped up at the Blackford 6.
On the next play, Faulkner took a Dunlavy pitch around the right side for the first of his three touchdowns. (He had two all of last season.)
Faulkner added a 2-yard TD in the third quarter, and punched the ball in from the 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter to finish with a career-high 179 yards on 21 carries.“The offensive line blocked pretty well and that helps a lot,” he said. “Just made some cuts and got into the open field.”
Faulkner had rushes of 49, 10, 11 and 20 yards just on the delayed draw.
“They were blitzing some (line)backers on third-and-long,” Zgunda said. “It’s kind of a good third-and-long play where we can kick out the blitzing backer and there’s a lane for Quinn.
“With his athletic ability, you get him one-on-one with people, that’s at our advantage. It’s one of those things that worked tonight because of what the situation was. Quinn, when he’s got some open field he’s a weapon.”
Caleb Hale was second in rushing for the Patriots with 70 yards on eight carries, including a 42-yard TD in the first quarter that put JCHS on top, 12-0.
Shawn Fisher notched his first career touchdown, a 12-yard run with 7:08 to go in the fourth quarter for a 33-0 advantage.
“We were able to move the ball, we just had a lot of mistakes that ended drives for us that we couldn’t capitalize,” Zgunda said. Jay County had 363 yards of total offense — more than any game in 2020 and the most since racking up 434 yards in the 2019 win against Heritage.
Blackford’s offense had trouble stopping 6-foot, 3-inch, 344-pound senior lineman Sean Guntle. Combined with Hunter Young, Wyatt Bergman and Austin Schoenlein, they often disrupted the Bruins’ wing-T offense. More times than not, the Jay County defensive line was making contact with quarterbacks Braxton Malott and Bryan Hernandez before, or just as, they were handing off to the running backs.
“They were dogs out there,” Faulkner said of his defensive teammates. “They got the job done.”
Blackford, which at half had just 26 rushing yards, finished with a measly 65 yards of total offense. Forty-two of those yards came on one play — the Bruins’ only score of the night and perhaps the Patriots’ only defensive blemish of the evening.
On one of those plays where Jay County disrupted the handoff, Hernandez wasn’t able to get the ball to one of his running backs. He scrambled and located a seam down the left side of the field. He went untouched the rest of the way into the end zone.
“The defense played lights out,” Zgunda said. “I thought we did a good job. Special teams were decent … Overall, for game one, I’m happy.
“Any time you get a win … after you’ve coached this many years, that’s all that matters. You just move on and try to work on the things you need to work on.”
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