Jay Co. won behind a record passing effort

Twenty-five years ago this week, the Patriots were celebrating the greatest passing performance in school history.

The Oct. 10, 1998, edition of The Commercial Review featured coverage of the Jay County High School football team’s 60-14 win over Connersville in which Brad Bennett set the school record for passing yards in a single game.

Bennett completed 14 of his 22 passing attempts for a school-record 422 yards to go along with five touchdowns.

“It keeps getting better and better, but this one was by far the best,” said Bennett, whose record stood until Billy Wellman broke it with 433 yards against Muncie Southside in 2008. “The other ones don’t count because we lost. It’s so much better when you win.”

The Patriots (2-6) were in control throughout, scoring 21 points in the opening quarter. The first of those scores came on A 75-yard pass from Bennett to Luke Bailey. 

“The play calling set me up,” said Bailey. “It was a real good, quick route and we were able to take advantage.”

Jon Glassford and Andrew Michael added TD runs before Bennett got rolling again in the second quarter.

Bennett had two more first-half TD passes, both to Andrew Michael. They connected on a 38-yard TD in the first quarter and added a 25-yard TD at the 9:13 mark of the second. He added TD passes of 49 yards to Bailey and 14 yards to Jon Glassford in the third.

With his passing effort, Bennett became the first quarterback in school history to surpass 2,000 yards in a season. He went on to finish with 2,381 yards for the season and 3,871 for his career, both records at the time. (Wellman also broke those marks, tossing for 2,546 yards in 2008 and setting a career mark of 5,289 yards.)