Stuck in the mud

Trailing by one at half, the host Patriots were set to kick off to begin the third quarter.

They needed a defensive stand to not let the game get away.

But Heritage marched 72 yards for the score to pad the lead, and Jay County continued to get stuck in the mud.

Heritage’s touchdown near the midway point of the third quarter kicked off a stretch of 31 straight points to hand the Jay County High School football team a 39-7 loss Friday night in the regular season finale at Harold E. Schutz Stadium.

“Just a frustrating game,” said JCHS coach Grant Zgunda, whose team heads into sectional play next week on a four-game losing streak. “You know the field is going to go to trash real quick. It’s a battle to see who can score first because you know it’s going to be hard to score.

“They went for two, which is, that was really good by them. I thought that was a smart coaching move.”

Heritage coach Casey Kolkman agreed his team’s 2-point conversions, as well as the third-quarter touchdown, were key to his Patriots escaping with the win.

“I think the score right out of halftime was big, especially in a game like this with the conditions and this much mud,” he said. “Going up 16-7 there was a big difference … It was good to get that one out of halftime.

“From that point on they were playing catchup.”

Rainfall throughout Thursday night into Friday morning made for soggy playing conditions. Uniforms from both teams were muddy following warmups, and the Jay County sideline had areas of standing water.

Footing was not easy to get. Following Heritage (4-6, 3-3 Allen County Athletic Conference) pushing the margin to 11 points, Jay County got stuck in a portion of the field — between the 25 and 45 yard lines on the northeast side of the stadium. The Patriots (3-6, 2-4 ACAC) fumbled consecutive snaps on second and third down and was forced to punt.

On its next possession, Jay County fumbled at its own 34, again unable to get out of the mud, and Heritage jumped on the loose ball for the turnover.

The visiting Patriots, who started the ensuing possession at the JC 35, capped the drive with their first of three fourth-quarter touchdowns.

“Seemed like the whole game we were right there,” Zgunda said of the muddy portion of the field. “Or we’d get to there and we’d bog down.

“It’s the way the game goes. When you play a game like this there is strategy to it … after they scored first, they went for two — and getting it — that was big for them. After that, they scored in the second half. We tried to make some things happen which is out of our character.”

Each of Jay County’s next two possessions ended in interceptions with Heritage scoring points off those turnovers. On the first, Eli Pilion picked off a Sam Dunlavy pass at the JCHS 48 and returned it to the 10, and a penalty pushed the ball to the 5. Ibrahim Williams, who scored on a 20-yard pass from Caleb Abbott in the first quarter, took a handoff around the left end for the TD.

Then Landon Hicks of Heritage caught a Dunlavy pass at the HHS 7. Mar Mat Ra Fee covered 93 yards in two plays, including an 85-yard touchdown, to make it 38-7 ahead of Fa Re Dal’s extra point with 68 seconds remaining.

The host Patriots got their only touchdown on a drive that took nearly eight minutes off the clock. They got the ball with 7:52 remaining in the first quarter, and 13 plays later Dunlavy pushed through the middle from the 4-yard line. 

Jay County had a couple unorthodox plays on the drive as well. Dunlavy scrambled 24 yards on a broken play after he was unable to make the handoff, and Bryce Wenk picked up a fumbled snap and covered 12 yards.

“The drive we had the score on, if my memory is right, seemed like a good job,” Zgunda said. “Seemed like we had things going and caught them off guard a little bit.

“We just couldn’t get a snap.”

Zgunda then commented on the dozen seniors who played their final regular season home game.

“They’ve been great to work with,” he said. “Every week of practice they work hard … I wish we could have got a win for those guys. They deserve that.”