Turnover trouble

LAPEL — Through the first seven weeks of the season, the Patriots turned the ball over four times.

They doubled their season total in week eight.

Five fumbles led to four turnovers for the Jay County High School football team, as the Patriots’ offense couldn’t get going against the Lapel Bulldogs in a 28-7 loss Friday night.

The Patriots (4-4) had some momentum to begin the second half.

Down 14-7, Jay County had the ball at its 36-yard line after Lapel (4-4) opened the half with an onside kick. The first play of the half was a run for A.J. Myers, who was stopped a yard behind the line of scrimmage. On play No. 2, Jay County switched things up with a handoff to Bryce Wenk.

He made it up to the 40-yard line where defensive back Rylie Hudson met him. As Hudson brought Wenk to the ground, he yanked the ball loose, allowing the Bulldogs’ Isaiah Priest to scoop it up and run it to the house to put Lapel up 21-7.

“That’s huge, especially when you’re kicking off to start the half,” Lapel coach Tim Miller said. “I think that got some momentum going for us.”

The Patriots never quite recovered, as they couldn’t spark their offense. They coughed the ball up three times on fumbles in the second half, while only garnering a net 10 yards in the half. Sean Bailey was unable to connect with any of his teammates, going 0-for-4 after halftime.

“We turned the ball over, had missed assignments, we had miscues — things we haven’t done all year,” JCHS coach Grant Zgunda said. “It was just an execution thing. … Offensively it was just a bad night. I don’t know how else you’d describe it.”

On the drive after the fumble return, Jay County was held to a three-and-out, losing 4 yards on a sack and a rush.

The third drive of the half started off promising, but came to a screeching halt. Bailey looked to throw the first play of the half, eventually scrambling for 29 yards after not finding a receiver to throw to. The second play featured a 6-yard gain from Wenk to reach the 8-yard line.

A bad snap on the third play ended the drive short when Bailey couldn’t land on the ball, forfeiting the possession within 10 yards of a score.

The Bulldogs took advantage of the mistake, marching 82 yards downfield in six plays to score. The drive was capped off by a 37-yard pass from Devin Craig to Logan White.

Jay County turned the ball over one more time in the fourth quarter, but all it did was help the clock run down before they could make a comeback.

In the second quarter, the Patriots were 2 yards away from the red zone with just under a minute left when Myers fumbled the ball, ending the potential scoring drive.

On the flip side, the one score Jay County had came off of a Lapel turnover.

Near midfield, Miller was handed the ball, attempting to split the line to rush up the field when Carter Barton made contact, jarring the ball loose. Benson Ward recovered the fumble at the Patriots’ 47.

A steady diet of short runs and trick play on which Myers tossed the ball to Bailey for 12 yards helped the Patriots march down so Bailey could rush for a 1-yard touchdown.

While Zgunda wasn’t impressed with how the offense played, he didn’t knock its effort or the performance of the defense. They held the Bulldogs to 80 yards on the ground while giving up 216 in the air.

“Defensively we played well, especially against the run,” Zgunda said. “Offensively, it’s not for a lack of effort. We played hard, we hit, we’re physical, we do all the things we just had too many miscues and that's on me.

“We just continued to, for this game, kill ourselves with mistakes.”