Flying aces

MONROE — The Jets had all of the answers.

Two quick passes to Grant Wendel on the Patriots opening drive? The Jets began to lock the screen passes down.

A Lucas Strait sack pushes them back 12 yards? Matt Heiser ripped off a 50-yard rush for a touchdown.

Strait blocks a punt for the second time this season, forcing the Jets to fall on it for a safety? They forced a three-and-out for great field position leading to a two-play drive for a touchdown.

Any time the Patriots started to find some momentum, the Jets made sure to snuff it out.

The 2021, ’22 and ’23 Class 1A state runners-up Adams Central Jets, which finished 15th in voting for the Class 2A AP poll this week, controlled the game on both sides of the ball to defeat the Jay County High School football team 39-8 on Friday.

“It was not good,” said JCHS coach Grant Zgunda. “I’ll take the blame for it and we’ll move on. We’ve got to do better than that.”

Jay County (2-2, 1-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) entered Friday, having only given up 72 rushing yards on the season, with the longest run being a 12-yard dash by Blackford’s Brady Bannister.

Yet, the reigning ACAC champion established from the start that it would be able to move the ball on the ground. Adams Central’s opening drive lasted 12 plays, 11 of them running to total 62 yards. A 17-yard rush by Heiser on which he nearly hurdled a pair of defenders ended up as the longest play of the drive that he capped off with a 7-yard TD.

“They really had a hard time stopping our run game,” said the Jets coach Michael Mosser. “That’s really what opened up the passing game and that’s what kind of sealed the deal.”

The opening drive ended as Adams Central’s longest of the contest, as they managed to score on seven or fewer plays or went three-and-out on every other drive.

The next two drives for the Jets (3-1, 1-0 ACAC) ended with massive plays. With less than three minutes remaining in the first quarter, a pair of runs gained 12 yards for ACHS to set up a passing play, on which Jamison Roach connected with Braylend Reber for a 64-yard TD down the right side at 1:58.

During the third drive, Jay County got a 12-yard sack from Strait to start and turn the tide in its favor. Facing third-and-15 at the 50-yard line, Heiser got the ball and made his way to the end zone after breaking a tackle near the 25 to kill the momentum.

“We couldn’t give up the big play coming into tonight and we gave up all kinds of big plays,” Zgunda said. “We didn’t match their physicality at all. It was a no contest and they absolutely beat us up.”

Two more times in the second quarter, the Patriots nearly got some momentum to swing on their side before Adams Central put an end to it. Following the Heiser touchdown, Benson Ward had a 37-yard kickoff return to put JCHS on the Jets’ half of the field. 

    Grant Wendel of Jay County starts to stiff arm Adams Central’s Reece Hammond after catching the first ball of the game for the Patriots. Wendel finished with a team-high 19 receiving yards on three catches. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)
 

Five rushing attempts by A.J. Myers and an offside call added another 22 yards, but the Jets’ defense came in to shut things down. The drive ended with a turnover on downs when the only open option for Sean Bailey was Grant Wendel, who was 5 yards short the sticks.

The Patriots almost recaptured the momentum again with a defensive three-and-out. On the punt attempt, Strait got a hand on the ball — it's the second time he’s blocked a punt this season — leading to a safety. The Jets responded by stopping Jay County on the next three drives and managing two more scores in the half. (They came on a 26-yard keep by Roach and a 3-yard run by Heiser.)

“Our kids do a really good job of being able to right the ship when they need to,” Mosser said. “They have a pretty quick memory, which is good. They don’t hold onto things and they do a pretty good job of getting out of it.”

The Jets’ final score came on a 24-yard rush by Aaron Hirschy early in the third after a fumble by Myers.

Heiser led the Jets with 126 yards on 13 attempts. Roach and Reber connected three times for 107 yards.

On the other side, Bailey led Jay County with 55 yards on 10 carries, followed by Myers with 13 rushes for 50 yards. Bailey also passed for 40 yards, going 8-of-15. Mosser was impressed by the senior quarterback’s fight and for keeping Jay County in the game early.

“He always fights to the end of the game,” Zgunda said. “I think we’ve got other guys that do that as well. We just need to get better.”