Going into Friday night’s game most “experts” had the Klondike Cougars to win by as much as two touchdowns.
The problem is, no one told the Jaybirds.
Jayton steamrolled the Cougars right out of the gate. Touchdowns from five different players led the ’Birds to find themselves up 35 to 6 halfway through the second quarter. The Jaybirds were rolling, and then adversity struck. Bizarre officiating, a couple of broken plays for Klondike that hit big, a dropped touchdown pass, and a failure to recover an onside kick had the score of this game much closer than it felt.
Head coach Josh Stanaland said, “We came out and we started the game really well and we built up a pretty good lead; let them come back and make it pretty interesting. I think they cut it to 35–30 and then a credit to our kids, they responded, shut them out, and we were able to win the game by 3 scores.” Klondike would go on to add a field goal but the Jaybirds would slam the door to the tune of a 55–34 thumping of the Cougars in Klondike Friday night.
There were many great performances, but in the fourth quarter it was Sean Stanaland who put the team on his back and started churning out first downs. With every scramble you could feel the momentum swinging back to the flock. His fourth-quarter 4-yard touchdown run, and his 11-yard touchdown pass to Griff Reel effectively crushed all hope for the Cougars.
When asked about his sophomore quarterback, Stanaland said, “We talk about feeding our studs. When the ball is in his hands in space, it’s tough… When you have a kid that you can trust, and he’s a good athlete, we put it in his hands and let him carry us to it in the end.”
The other notable standout was sophomore Bode Ham. It seemed that the Klondike offensive game plan was to run right at his smaller frame, and Ham continually rose to the challenge, leading the team with 15 tackles.
“Bode doesn’t know he’s little and we’re not going to tell him,” Stanaland noted. “We love everything about him. He thinks he’s six-four and bulletproof and he plays that way.”
In the end the Jaybirds were too much for the favored Cougars. With so many weapons, Jayton may be too much for a lot of teams this year.
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