Screened out

BLUFFTON — The Patriots had their backs against the wall.

Down two scores with the ball on their own 24-yard line and 6:08 remaining, they needed to move quickly to give themselves a chance.

Sean Bailey fired off passes to his receiving corps, with quarterback keepers mixed in.

An 11-yard pass to Ben Crouch, 17 yards to Brady Jetmore, 14 to Grant Wendel and 32 rushing yards from Bailey got the Patriots to the goal line in no time before the senior quarterback ran the final 2 yards.

The Tigers needed to run out the final 3 minutes, 11 seconds, while the Patriots wanted a three-and-out. A sack of Axton Beste by Lucas Strait and an incompletion had the Patriot faithful on their feet for third-and-13.

With Beste throwing a screen pass to running back Cooper Craig, the Patriots just needed to stop the sophomore before the 45-yard line. But he had a pair of blockers and a lot of open field.

With the right sideline cleared out for him, Craig took the ball 58 yards to run the Patriots off the field.

The Jay County High School football team traded shots with the Class 2A No. 9 Bluffton Tigers on Friday night, but came up short after a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns as the Tigers stayed undefeated with a 34-25 victory.

“Our efforts is always there,” said JCHS coach Grant Zgunda. “We’re getting better. They’re a good football team and we had some plays we needed to make to win it and we didn’t do it.

“We’ll continue to get better, I have no doubt about it.”

Jay County (2-3, 1-2 Allen County Athletic Conference) entered the fourth quarter down 20-18 to the Tigers (5-0, 3-0 ACAC). After one incomplete pass, Jay County punted the ball away to give Bluffton a chance to extend its lead. It took the Tigers seven plays to move the ball 43 yards to get a 1st-and-goal.

The Patriot defense gave up a 4-yard screen pass to Craig before making a stand. A false start, a run that resulted in a loss of three years and an incomplete had Bluffton at fourth-and-goal on the 12-yard line.

BHS wasn’t to be denied, as Beste found a wide open Aaron Streveler on a corner route.

With Abram Gehrett hitting the PAT, Jay County needed two scores to take the lead.

Cue a Patriot drive that had Bailey lead his team 76 yards in less than three minutes for the score.

“That’s the most magical drive I’ve ever been a part of in my four years here,” Bailey said. “It was amazing. … We wanted it. We wanted to get back into it. But at the end of the day, they scored more than us.”

Following the TD, Bluffton jumped on the onside kick at its 45-yard line. Strait sacked Beste and more pressure forced the sophomore to throw the ball away, facing third-and-13 as the momentum started to swing two Jay County.

Beste and Craig quelled that swing with the 58-yard TD.

“This group’s just so mentally tough,” said Bluffton coach Brent Kunkel. “Whatever was thrown at them, I thought they did a good job of responding. …

“Credit to our kids. Bend don’t break. I don’t know how we would have responded had they taken the lead. We haven’t been down yet this year in any game. For us to keep the lead gave our kids confidence and if they punched one in there, who knows. A completely different game.”

Jay County had the only score of the third quarter as Wendel returned a punt for a 70-yard touchdown and the defense held up the Tigers.

The teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter as a strong ground attack led to a Bluffton score on the first drive of the game and JCHS responded with Bailey hitting Benson Ward for a 45-yard TD pass.

The Patriots scored once in the second quarter after Bailey again found Ward for 32 yards and followed with a six-yard pass to Garrett Bennet for the TD with 45.5 seconds left.

Bluffton found the end zone twice in the period, including a 63-yard drive in the final 45.5 seconds. The Tigers needed a near-perfect drive to make it into the end zone, using all three timeouts, spiking the ball and getting a 5-for-7 passing effort from Beste.

While the Patriots’ faces reflected the sting of narrowly missing the opportunity to upset a ranked opponent in the conference, they did find positives from the outcome that they will look to build on moving forward.

“There’s a lot of positives,” Zgunda said. “I thought there was a lot of bright spots and I feel bad for our kids. We’ve got a lot of football to play and we need to get back after it next week.”