Jay slips below .500

BERNE — The Stars struck first on fourth-and-long.

They continued to use big plays to get past the Patriots.

South Adams scored all five offensive touchdowns on plays of 25 yards or more in handing the Jay County High School football team a 42-13 loss Friday night at Starfire Field.

“It’s a combination of everything,” said JCHS coach Grant Zgunda, whose team dips to 3-4 (2-3 Allen County Athletic Conference). “We just made some mistakes. Throughout the game we just made some critical mistakes.

“The thing is, they are all correctable. All we’re going to do is keep doing what we’re doing and try to get better.”

South Adams coach Grant Moser, whose squad was coming off back-to-back losses and is ranked seventh in Class 1A, was pleased with the way sophomore signal caller Owen Wanner was able to distribute the football.

“Loved the way we spread the ball around,” Moser said. “Our sophomore quarterback looked like a stud, but it’s two screen passes, a bubble pass and our receivers blocking.

“We just took what they gave us and we were patient offensively.”

South Adams (4-2, 3-1 ACAC) got on the board less than three minutes into the night on a 25-yard pass from Wanner to Brady Beall on fourth-and-10 from the 25. Beall ran a straight vertical route and beat two JCHS defenders while Wanner lofted him the pass to the end zone.

An offside penalty on the point-after attempt prompted the Starfires to go for two, and Maverick Summersett crossed the goal line to make it 8-0.

Jay County answered quickly as Quinn Faulkner threw a running back pass to a wide open Justin DeHoff for a 67-yard score. Hoping to tie the game, the Patriots went for the 2-point conversion only to have their run come up short.

The Patriots didn’t get any closer the rest of the game.

Wanner, who ended his night 15-of-18 passing for 284 yards and five touchdowns, connected with Trey Schoch for a 71-yard touchdown on the Starfires’ next drive. Wanner went out on a bootleg to his right after faking a handoff, and hit Schoch in stride on a post route.

Zgunda said containing Schoch was the defensive gameplan, as he was the team’s leading receiver.

“We wanted to pick and choose our moments to double him,” he said.

South Adams scored again with 4:43 to go in the first quarter when Wanner hit Jordan Hinshaw on a bubble screen to the left and he scampered 68 yards to the end zone.

AJ Dull (59 yards) and Summersett (31 yards) scored second-half touchdowns on screen passes. South Adams’ final TD of the night came when Beall blocked a Sheldon Minch punt deep in Patriot territory and he jumped on the loose ball in the end zone.

The Starfires led 42-6 at halftime.

“We’re just playing catch-up the whole time,” Zgunda said. “We’ve got ourselves in that situation a couple weeks in a row and we’re not built for that right now.”

Jay County, which travels to take on the Lapel Bulldogs (5-2) on Friday, struggled to get its offense going outside of its first drive touchdown. The Patriots had just 45 yards of offense in the first half other than the Faulkner-DeHoff scoring play. They had 106 yards after halftime, including a 1-yard TD run from Caleb Hale midway through the fourth quarter that made it 42-13.

“We were getting beat,” Zgunda said. “We weren’t blocking. We weren’t physical enough. They were more physical than us. You win the line of scrimmage like that you’re going to win the game.

“That’s what I’ve been preaching to the guys all year. We’re working hard. Our guys are working hard. We play well at times and then we don’t play well at times. That’s what’s going on.”

Quinn Faulkner ended with 63 yards on 14 carries and added 51 receiving yards on four catches.

Sam Dunlavy completed half of his dozen pass attempts for 51 yards. Hale ended with 36 yards on 13 carries.

“Every game we have some positives,” Zgunda said. “We do some things right and then we do some things really wrong. Those things are costing us right now.”