Jaybirds fall 20 seconds short in Area playoffs

As far as game variables go, the Jayton Jaybirds faced a perfect storm on Friday night’s area playoff game against the Throckmorton Greyhounds.

Throckmorton is big and slow, Jayton is lean and fast—but when those teams face off in thirty-degree temps on a mysteriously wet grass field, the Jaybird speed advantage gets quickly nullified.

Still, the Jaybirds showed grit all night. This particular fan thinks about a goal-line stand just before the half, a gritty, tacklebreaking touchdown reception by Jaydon Rivera, the fascinating improvisation of Bode Ham on a couple of touchdowns, and the never-quit attitude of the entire team.

But on this night the Jaybirds would fall twenty seconds short.

It would be the Greyhounds who would trail 24–22 with under a minute to play, the only variable who would score the goahead touchdown with twenty seconds left on the clock. It was a game so close that the Throckmorton running back even fumbled on the scoring play, but was ruled to have crossed the goal line just before the ball came out. So close!

But ultimately the Jaybirds fell to the Greyhounds 30–24 and their season has come to an end.

Head coach Josh Stanaland commented after the game, “It was a good ballgame, we just came up short. I tell our kids all the time that players win games and coaches lose games. I take the blame for this. The kids played hard, they battled, and unfortunately we came up short.”

It is difficult to lose in the playoffs, but even more difficult for a coach to say good-bye to a group of seniors. Stanaland added, “I can’t say enough about this current group of seniors. Jayden Rivera, a three-year starter in our program, made some huge plays tonight; Caleb Beck and the stuff that he can do catching the football and as a defensive end; and Cayden Greenwood, he doesn’t get his name in the paper as much, but he is super valuable to the stuff we do on special teams, and the stuff we do in practice every week. Great kids! Great senior class, it breaks my heart that I don’t get to coach them anymore.”