Quick to score

It is typically a bad thing if your defense spends a large amount of time on the field.

For the Patriots, it was a good sign that their offense was able to score in so few plays.

The Jay County High School football team’s offense was executing at a high rate during its 47-7 win in the season opener against the Blackford Bruins on Friday.

In the first half, the Patriots only had to run 16 plays to score five touchdowns for 35 points.

“I thought execution wise offensively we were pretty good,” JCHS coach Grant Zgunda said. “I don't think we ran many plays. Most of our plays came in that last (14 minutes) when (Leighton) Brown was running the ball.”

Two of Jay County’s first-half drives took only one play. A 37-yard punt return by Benson Ward set the Patriots up nicely at Blackford’s 14-yard line. Quarterback Sean Bailey handed the ball to A.J. Myers, who waltzed into the end zone for the first score of the game with 8:18 remaining in the first quarter. Myers also kicked the extra point.

The Patriots’ third drive also required just one play to reach paydirt. Joe Hemmelgarn scooped the football up off of a Donovan Soto fumble to put Jay County 19 yards away from the goal line. This time, Bailey went to the air. He lofted the ball up to the back right corner of the end zone, where Ward laid out to snag the ball for the score at 4:24 in the first.

“We had some things open throwing the ball,” Zgunda said. “Sean was on and he really threw the ball well tonight.”

Bailey was able to throw for two more touchdowns in the game, both in the first half as well. He connected with Ward for a 15-yard touchdown at the 8:45 mark in the second quarter and found a wide-open Justin Dehoff for a 39-yard touchdown as time expired in the half.

“O-line blocked long enough for me to get rid of it,” Bailey said. “The safety was shifted over and he was open.

“It makes it a lot easier to have multiple targets. They are good athletes and they find a way to get open.”

Bailey finished 9-of-11 for 135 yards. Four different receivers came down with the ball, including Dehoff (63 yards) and Ward (49 yards), who each had three receptions. 

Myers was responsible for the two more touchdowns as well. He scored on a 5-yard rush at 5:40 in the first quarter and 7-yarder with 7:18 left in the third. He attributed the success to the blocking of his teammates.

“Our tight ends and our linemen blocked really, really well today. We got the blocks down and I was able to get outside of them and score,” Myers said. “Thank you to our linemen. I mean, they did great today. I wouldn't be able to do this without them.”

Myers was responsible for every PAT attempt, as he kicked three through the uprights, two were blocked, one missed and he rushed for a two-point conversion.

The final Jay County score came on a five-yard run by Brown with 8:45 in the final quarter.

The Bruins were short handed in the game, only having 18 players suited up. From there, Blackford saw several players get banged up throughout the game, with running back Carter Clouse cramping up, center Thomas Bolling coming off at another point and Nicholas Ely being carted off the field on a stretcher after full-body cramps.

“We have to get very creative with how we sub things,” Blackford coach Randy Sehy said. “Offensive line wise, the next man up is a freshman, and they knew that, took advantage of it with their blitz game, and then we just struggled with keeping them off our quarterback after that.”

The Bruins were able to move the ball on their fourth and fifth drives of the game. To end the first quarter, they drove 40 yards before a fumble by Soto gave the Patriots the ball.

On their next possession, they took the ball from their 41-yard line and drove it down the field to score. Clouser capped off the drive with a 4-yard rush to score.

Clouser finished the game as the Bruins’ leading rusher with 67 yards on 17 attempts.

“What was working as we were actually blocking people for a change,” Sehy said. “We’re a young team … they're still getting used to varsity game speed, and things that go on.”

The Patriots didn’t help themselves on the Blackford’s scoring drive, committing two penalties. One of them was an offsides call on fourth-and-10, despite Zgunda calling a timeout and telling his team to watch the ball to make sure it was snapped.

“We’ve got to be able to focus when we’re tired,” Zgunda said. “That’s easier said than done … these are things we’ve got to learn in practice.”