‘We didn’t block’

Football, at its core, is a game won and lost in the trenches.

The team that controls the line of scrimmage has the advantage.

On the Patriots’ homecoming night, it was advantage Warriors.

Jay County High School’s football team gave up six sacks, had a net total of 1 rushing yard and gave up 277 yards on the ground Friday in a 21-0 loss to visiting Woodlan.

Grant Zgunda was initially at a loss for words.

“I don’t have any … I don’t know. We, uh … yeah … There’s not a lot to say,” said the JCHS coach following the rainy, windy defeat that dropped his team to 2-4 overall and 1-3 in the Allen County Athletic Conference. “We’re missing some guys that we had last year. They graduated and we’re still trying to figure it out.

“We thought we were on the right track. Last week we played pretty well, and for whatever reason tonight, tonight was, um …

“I wish I could tell you they came out in something crazy. But it wasn’t. They didn’t blitz. It was literally we just did not; we didn’t block. I’m not just talking about the line. I’m just saying we didn’t block. And I can’t explain it.”

Eleven of the Patriots’ 29 rushing attempts went for negative yards. Six of those were sacks of quarterback Sean Bailey, who often found himself under pressure a split second after he received the shotgun snap. Those sacks totaled 52 negative yards.

Jay County only made it into positive rushing yardage on A.J. Myers’ 9-yard run on the final play of the game.

Woodlan, meanwhile, was able to move the ball on the ground. The visitors, who attempted just two passes, got 162 yards from Drew Fleek alone.

The Warriors were up 14-0 early in the fourth quarter when they ran a counter play to the right side of the line with Fleek as the ball carrier. He broke through and then outran Grant Wendel and Carter Fugiett to the end zone for an 82-yard score that all but locked up the victory.

“Kind of a little bit of a breakout game for Drew,” said first-year Woodlan coach Brock Rohrbacher. (Fleek had 245 yards over his team’s first five games.) “He’s been looking for one of these and it happened for him tonight.”

Jake Ley added another 41 yards on eight carries and Ashtin Jacquay had 37 yards on two attempts. Shaiden Snyder had a 51-yard scoring run on the opening drive of the game that was called back because of a holding penalty.

After neither team made much progress on its first two possessions, Woodlan got some traction on a Jacquay 35-yard run that gave his team a first-and-goal opportunity. They were in the end zone two plays later on a 4-yard run by Fleek.

Jay County held the ball for the first seven and a half minutes of the third quarter but stalled out on a fourth-down fumble at the 27-yard line, with the Warriors returning the ball to the end zone only to have the return called back because of another penalty. Still, they put points on the board, driving 57 yards in five plays capped by a 12-yard Ley counter run.

“The guys did a super job, great job tonight,” said Rohrbacher. “I’m proud of them.

“The kids were physical. We played assignment football. Running backs did a good job of holding onto the football in very tough conditions. It was a well-played game in all three phases.”

Zgunda lamented negative plays and penalties.

The Patriots reached the Woodlan 27-yard line on their first drive, only to have consecutive runs that went for negative-6 yards.

They got some good fortune when Benson Ward hauled in a tipped pass that had been intended for Aiden Phillips to get them to the 24-yard line on the opening drive of the third quarter. The next two plays went backwards.

They made it to the 24-yard line on their next drive. But then came a shovel pass for negative yards, a holding penalty, an incompletion, another run for a loss and a sack.

“It was the same thing last week. … We have opportunities,” said Zgunda. “Even tonight there were times we had some momentum going — it was still 7-0 or even 14-0 — but then we get a 10-yard penalty. …

“We had a third-and-1 … and then we jump offsides on a quarterback sneak.”

Though the sacks left him with negative rushing yards, Bailey completed 7-of-17 passes for 90 yards. Ben Crouch had three catches for 49 yards and Ward added two catches for 23 yards.