Truck stopped

BERNE — On fourth-and-1 with the game on the line, the Patriots got what they wanted.

Their play was designed to have Sean Bailey rolling to his right and trotting into the end zone for the game-winning score.

He just couldn’t escape the giant truck that came barreling through the line.

The Jay County High School football team’s attempt to ruin South Adams’ dual home opener and homecoming game was thwarted in the final seconds Friday night as Diesel Zeigler snagged Bailey’s jersey to throw the potential game-winning play into chaos. Diesel’s disruption capped a final stand for the Starfires, and Owen Wanner took a knee on the next play as they held off the visiting Patriots 23-20.

“We had it,” said JCHS coach Grant Zgunda, whose team had rallied for a 34-29 win over Woodlan last week. “We had it. It was a fake counter play, a keep, like a boot action to Sean. He would have walked in the end zone. … There was nobody there. … But the dude got him by the shirt. That’s football. Kudos to them.”

After South Adams (4-3, 1-3 Allen County Athletic Conference) took the lead on an Owen Wanner 4-yard TD run with six minutes to go, the Patriots (4-3, 2-3 ACAC) got a big pass play and then methodically moved down the field. They got to the 15-yard line with 58.7 seconds left, moved to the 8 on a defensive pass interference call, picked up 2 yards on an A.J. Myers run and then spiked the ball on third down.

That set the stage — fourth-and-1, 10.2 seconds left, no timeouts.

With his team having found success on its counter play — Bryce Wenk gained 87 yards on 11 carries — Zgunda decided to work off of that action to try for the game-winning score. Bailey took the snap and faked the counter to Wenk, then started to roll to his right. He never had the chance to take advantage of the daylight Zgunda saw as the big paw of Zeigler grabbed his jersey from behind.

Unable to escape the 6-foot, 2-inch, 335-pounder, Bailey instead flipped the ball to Myers. But he had nowhere to go as he was tackled for a 6-yard loss that all but ended the game.

“We were gonna take (Zeigler) out there because we thought they had to pass the ball with no timeouts,” said SAHS coach Grant Moser. “He said, ‘Coach, leave me in. Trust me.’

“I said, ‘You got it, big man.’

“Huge play. He’s an offensive guy, but that won the game for us.”

The game went back-and-fourth all night with four lead changes, two of which came in the fourth quarter. Jay County took its final lead on a 1-yard TD run by Bailey for 20-16 advantage early in the period.

That’s when Moser turned to Colton Bollenbacher. The senior running back notched 68 of his 124 rushing yards on what turned out to be the game-winning drive. The effort included a 41-yard run on the opening play of the possession as he went up the middle and then cut to the right sideline. He added a 21-yard run two plays later, eventually setting up Wanner’s TD run.

“I didn’t give him the ball near enough early on, I don’t think,” said Moser. “We took what they gave us … maybe got a little bit too creative, though, as far as play calling goes.

“Once he goes, he can go.”

Wanner added 151 yards through the air for the Starfires, who were playing on their new artificial turf field for the first time. (They had to play their first two “home” games this year at Adams Central as installation of the new field was being completed.)

Jay County fell behind 10-0 — Jackson 

Garcia recorded the first points on the new field on a 27-yard field goal on his team’s opening drive — before scoring twice in the final four minutes of the first half. Myers (32 carries, 107 yards) reached the end zone on a 4-yard run and Bailey connected with Justin DeHoff on an 11-yard fade to the right corner with 8.8 seconds left for a 14-10 halftime lead.

Bollenbacher started the back-and-forth second half, scoring on a 2-yard TD run at the 8:34 mark of the third quarter. He cashed in after homecoming king Hayden Brown blocked a Patriot punt and recovered the ball at the 13-yard line.

It’s plays like those — JCHS also had a high snap fly over Bailey’s head for a big loss and gave up the ball on an interception — that Zgunda said his team’s need to erase.

“We’ve got to get over that stuff,” he said. “We can’t play that way. They’re killers.”

“I still believe that if we play the way we’re capable of we shouldn’t be in that position,” he added. “We’re not there yet.

“I’m so proud of the way the kids play. I feel bad for them. … I know how bad they wanted it, we wanted it as a team.”