Bright beginning

Three of the first four passes didn’t go as planned for the Patriots in their first game under Eddie Fields.

In the second quarter, a Nick Laux shovel pass to Leighton Brown resulted in the first touchdown of the season. Once the dam broke, the Bruins couldn’t contain the Patriots’ offense.

The Jay County High School football team exploded for 33 points in the second quarter to take down the Blackford Bruins 56-6 in the season opener on Friday.

“I’m really pumped for the kids,” said Fields, who coached his first game for Jay County. “We’re trying to build something they want to be a part of. When I took the job, I told our coaches, if we’d just love our kids and make our kids love football, kids will start coming out and we got the roster over 60.

“We had fun. I just sent a text to all my buddies and said, ‘We won, no kids were injured and every kid got to play, so it doesn’t get better than that. Just a really cool night for Jay County football.”

It took the Patriots (1-0) awhile to get their aerial game going. The first pass that Laux threw fell for an incompletion, despite Grant Wendel having an open shot at the end zone. 

The next three passes were intended for Brady Jetmore, but low throws resulted in a loss of three yards, a gain of 14 and an end zone incompletion. (JCHS still scored on the drive as freshman Jacoby Penrod nailed the 22-yard field goal.)

Things changed after a quick stop.

Jay County’s second drive started at Blackford’s 46-yard line. Laux had to scramble a short distance before finding Brown just beyond the line of scrimmage. The JCHS junior beat Gage Dow in a foot race and scampered the rest of the 36 yards to score the first touchdown of the game.

The flood gates completely opened for the Patriots after that as they found the end zone on the following four drives of the second quarter.

Scores came in on:

•A 3-yard keep by Laux to cap a five-play drive after the Bruins (0-1) gave up the football on an onside kick

•A 3-yard rush by Carter Fugiett following a bad snap on a punt attempt that gave the Patriots the ball in the red zone

•A 52-yard pass from Laux to Jetmore to score on a single play

•A 39-yard pass from Laux to Jetmore that was set up by a trick play that saw Laux lateral the ball to Fugiett, who then proceeded to launch it 33 yards downfield to Jetmore

“I think the nerves wore off,” said Laux, who finished 9-of-12 for 203 yards. “Our reps over the summer and over the beginning of the season so far paid off. We found ourselves and quit letting the nerves get to us and went to work.”

Despite holding a 36-6 lead at halftime, they weren’t done yet.

Coming out of the intermission, Brown broke through the line and brought the ball to the house for a 54-yard score.

“With Jay County, in the second half it’s been the game is typically over,” said Brown, who lead the Patriots with 118 rushing yards. “It’s either we’re throwing in our JV guys because we’re down or we’re throwing our JV guys in because we’re up by a lot.

“Coach told us in the locker room, ‘We’re setting our identity right now and what we’re going to be this year.’ That was the way to do it on the first play.”

With the running clock activated, Fields managed to move some guys around to get all of his players some time on the field and give some guys different looks.

Freddie Lingo was one of them.

Normally, Lingo is in the trenches to protect Laux and pave the way for Brown to come out of the backfield. For one play late in the third quarter, he got his number called to carry the ball.

The offensive lineman managed to avoid getting taken down by Stratahn Sargent before meeting Benjamin Rosenauer at the goal line. He plowed through the defensive back for the score.

In true lineman fashion, he had praise for the rest of his crew clearing the way for him.

“It was fun,” Lingo said. “I couldn’t have done it without my linemen. Garrett Dillon, he made a chip off that wedge and I saw the hole and I took it.”

The final score of the game came for Jay County with 11:40 remaining in the fourth quarter. Brown rushed in his third touchdown of the game from the 36-yard line.

Blackford’s sole score came in the second quarter when Brady Bannister — he was the BHS leading rusher with 117 yards on 17 attempts — ripped off a 65-yard touchdown run.

The Bruins were without a key piece in sophomore Kamari Taylor, who averaged 73.3 rushing yards per game last year, and lost several more as four players had to leave the game because of injuries.

“We started getting a couple kids banged up and then after that it’s just a chain reaction,” said BHS coach Steve Boozier, who is a JCHS graduate and served as the Patriots’ coach from 2010 to 2012 and athletics director from 2013 to 2024. “We threw some kids out there and trial by fire and they had to learn on the fly. It’s one thing going to practice and there’s no pressure on and then you’re out there on a field on Friday night under the lights and you’ve got to execute that play that suddenly you haven’t got as many reps in as a starter.”

Fields opened his tenure at Jay County with a victory and will have eight days to prepare before traveling south to New Castle. In that time, he will look to clean up his team’s play, as its sole sore spot was giving up 60 yards on nine penalties.

Blackford Bruins (0-1)

at Jay County Patriots (1-0)

Blackford     0    6    0    0    —    6

Jay County    3    33    13    7    —    56

First Quarter

JC — Jacoby Penrod field goal, 2:14.

Second Quarter

JC — Leighton Brown 46 pass from Nick Laux (Penrod kick), 11:37.

JC — Laux 3 run (Penrod kick), 9:45.

JC — Carter Fugiett 3 run (kick fail), 7:08.

B — Brady Bannister 65 run (kick fail), 6:58.

JC — Brady Jetmore 52 pass from Laux (kick fail), 6:44.

JC — Jetmore 39 pass from Laux (Penrod kick), 0:00.

Third Quarter

JC — Brown 54 run (Penrod kick), 11:41.

JC — Freddie Lingo run (kick fail), 2:14.

Fourth Quarter

JC — Brown 36 run (Penrod kick), 11:40.

Team Statistics

        B    JC

Rushes - yds    35-122    16-179

Comp-Att-Int    0-2-0    10-13-0

Passing yds    0    236

Total Plays    37    29

Total Offense    122    382

Punt ret - yds    0-0    1-9

Kickoff ret - yds    5-46    2-34

Sacks - yds lost    0-0    1-8

Ints - yds    0-0    0-0

Fumbles - lost    6-2    3-1

Penalties - yds    4-30    9-60

Individual Statistics

Rushing — Blackford — Brady Banniser 17-117, Gage Dow 6-10, Corbin Batten 3-6, Dallas Richardson 2-4, Hunter Cale 5-(-15). Jay County — Leighton Brown 5-118, Nick Laux 6-30, Freddie Lingo 1-14, Brady Millsapugh 2-12, Carter Fugiett 1-3, Max McClain III 1-2.

Passing — Blackford — Hunter Cale 0-2-0 0. Jay County — Nick Laux 2-19-0 203, Carter Fugiett 1-1-0 33. 

Receiving —  Jay County — Brady Jetmore 6-165, Leighton Brown 1-46, Grant Wendel 3-25.