Fight falls short

Playing against an undefeated, state-ranked conference rival for the second week in a row, the Patriots fought.

Even down 19 points less than three minutes into the second quarter, they fought.

They fought to within 11 yards of a one-score game in the second half.

But they simply made too many mistakes to overcome a team having its best season in more than four decades.

The Jay County High School football team fell behind big early, scored in the final 15 seconds of the opening half and then stalemated with the Class 2A No. 5 Bluffton Tigers in a 19-7 homecoming loss Friday.

“They’re good,” said JCHS coach Grant Zgunda. The Tigers are 5-0 for the first time since 1982. “And we made, me included, a lot of mental mistakes offensively in the first half. …

“If we can just correct some of those breakdowns … I think our physicality is there. Our fight’s there.”

After a strong start against Class 1A No. 2 Adams Central last week before fading to a 42-7 loss, the Patriots (3-2, 1-2 Allen County Athletic Conference) had a rough start to their homecoming game. They tried to go deep down the left side on the opening play of the game, only to have Bluffton’s Ben Ramseyer snag JCHS quarterback Sean Bailey’s pass for interception that he returned 14 yards.

“When they get the ball to start, you’re just hoping to get a stop so you can get the offense on the field quick,” said Bluffton coach Brent Kunkel.

“Ben Ramseyer has been a three-year starter for us, made a fantastic play on the ball, was able to give us some momentum right from the jump.”

The Tigers (5-0, 3-0 ACAC), who won their first four games by an average of 36.5 points, covered the remaining 36 yards to the end zone in nine plays, converting two fourth downs in the process. The second of those was on the touchdown, as senior receiver Andrew Hunt leapt over JCHS defensive back Justin DeHoff to haul in a 15-yard scoring pass in the right corner of the end zone from his classmate Braxton Betancourt (7-of-15 passing for 55 yards).

Jay County came up short on a fourth-and-1 in Tiger territory on its next drive, and the visitors responded with an eight-play scoring drive capped by a 5-yard Tucker Jenkins run. And following a Patriot three-and-out, Bluffton needed just five plays for Cooper Craig to score on a 2-yard run for a 19-0 lead at the 9:37 mark of the second quarter.

“It just happened so early,” said Zgunda. “We can’t do that. We can’t get in a hole like that.”

Jenkins totaled 84 yards on 15 carries while Craig finished with 83 yards on 16 carries.

The Patriots got on the board with 13.1 seconds left in the first half when Bailey rolled to his left, stopped and found Rhysin Blowers standing all alone in the end zone.

Jay County had a big opportunity in the third quarter when the Tigers tried a fake punt from near midfield. It looked as if Betancourt would easily pick up the first down, but sophomore Garrett Bennett was not fooled and made an open-field tackle to give the Patriots the ball.

“It’s something I watched on film all week,” said Bennett. “I knew they were going to run it. I mean, that’s not even my job on that play. It was just a spur of the moment thing.”

Jay County moved the ball down to the 11-yard line, just 33 feet from a touchdown that would have pulled it within one score. But the home team did nothing but move backward from that point, with three consecutive rushes going for negative yards and a Bailey fade toward Ben Crouch on fourth down falling incomplete.

After another Patriot fourth-down try failed midway through the final period, Bluffton was able to string together some runs to burn the clock and eventually went into victory formation from the 2-yard line in the final minute.

“This was a grind tonight,” said Kunkel. “We knew it was going to be a grind coming in.”

“We started the game great. But credit to Jay County. … They made a couple adjustments. One or two plays got us off rhythm and we had a hard time getting it back.”

The Patriots struggled to get much going offensively, with eight runs going for negative yardage and 11 of their 13 passing attempts falling incomplete.

“Defensive line wise, they were pretty stout,” said Zgunda. “When that is the case, it’s just difficult, whether it’s the passing game or running game.”