Football Friday: Jays end season with blowout loss, seniors set good example

Jays defensive back David Bethune goes low to tackle Joplin receiver Zach Westmoreland during Friday night's game in Joplin.
Jays defensive back David Bethune goes low to tackle Joplin receiver Zach Westmoreland during Friday night's game in Joplin.

JOPLIN - It hasn't been an easy two years for coach Terry Walker and the Jefferson City Jays.

Year 1 ended with a 36-0 loss at Blue Springs and a 4-6 record.

"It's pretty easy to assess: We're 4-6," Walker said after that defeat. "When you look at that as a staff, our point on that is it's unacceptable. I would hope that our players would think that it's unacceptable too. I hope as a staff we'll take a hard look at everything we're doing on offense and defense, we'll ask the players to do the same and we'll get to work in making improvements.

"We knew that we had things we had to do fundamentally to improve, and I think we made some of those improvements over the course of the year, but certainly we have a long way to go."

Year 2 ended Friday night in a 68-16 loss to top-seeded Joplin in the opening round of Class 6 District 3 play.

"If I'm being totally honest, last year we had more talent," Walker said. "Not sure we worked as well. This year we had less talent, we worked harder. The environment, as far as preparation goes, is better. I think the kids are understanding what our expectation is effort-wise and preparation-wise, but we've got to become smarter football players, and we've got to learn football."

The Jays concluded the season on a seven-game losing streak for a 2-8 record, the lowest win total since a two-win season in 2002.

Some of the Jays' seniors ended their careers on the field while others had to finish as spectators on the sideline because of injuries.

But Walker pointed out the example this year's class set.

"I thought we had a group of seniors that worked really hard," Walker said. "I really did. I thought the seniors were dedicated in the weight room in the offseason. I thought they worked really hard in the summer. I thought that, for the most part, that they prepared well and I'm proud of their effort. Unfortunately, they're not going to get to see the fruits of their labor, someone else is going to see that. But they put in a lot of time and effort and blood, sweat and tears. I'm happy about that and proud about that for them, but we've got a lot of things we've got to work on."

A few of those things showed up Friday night.

The Jays allowed a season-high 68 points to finish the season surrendering nearly 43 points per game.

What caused Joplin's outburst in scoring was the result of issues Jefferson City has had much of the season.

The Eagles scored five touchdowns of more than 50 yards.

The first came six plays into the game on a fourth-and-1.

Jefferson City had just stuffed Isaiah Davis, a South Dakota State commit that entered the game averaging 10.2 yards per carry, for no gain.

Then the 6-foot-1, 225-pound back did what he's done to numerous teams: run through a hole, break a tackle and sprint to the end zone.

This one went for 53 yards for a 6-0 lead just 1:31 into the game.

Davis only touched the ball four more times the rest of the game, but he added touchdown runs of 28, 1 and 64 to finish with 149 yards and four scores on eight carries.

Jefferson City answered the first touchdown with a 40-yard Ben Folz field goal and answered an 80-yard touchdown pass for Blake Tash to Zach Westmoreland with a 73-yard touchdown pass from Cole Gresham to Darrell Jones to keep within 13-10 with 4:33 left in the first quarter.

But Joplin put the game away with six straight touchdown drives and Elijah Eminger's 35-yard pick-six to lead 61-10 at halftime.

Three of those touchdowns followed a fumble and another came after a turnover on downs.

"You've got to hold onto the football," Walker said. "You've got to throw it, you've got to catch it, you've got to hold onto it when you've got it in your hands, and that's just the deal."

Another turnover set up Joplin's final score.

After both teams went three-and-out to begin the second half, a Jefferson City player touched a bouncing punt and Dominick Simmons recovered the live ball for Joplin at the Jefferson City 18.

Reserve running back Mataou James had runs of 5 and 13 yards to reach the end zone at the 4:15 mark of the third quarter.

Jefferson City scored on the ensuing drive as Gresham completed passes of 34 and 10 yards to Devin White before pushing up the middle for a 1-yard touchdown to cap a 10-play drive and make it 68-16 with 8:53 remaining.

White caught six passes for 134 yards, breaking the school record for receptions in a season.

White ended the season with 53 catches, surpassing Adam Huff's mark of 47 set in 2016, and also set a record with 909 receiving yards this season.

"We need more guys around him to elevate their level of play," Walker said. "It's certainly something for Devin to be proud of but l'm not really focused on individual records right now. I'm more focused on what we can do to help the team play better."

Gresham, a senior, completed 10-of-20 passes for 218 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He also led the Jays with 90 yards rushing with a touchdown on 23 attempts

On the other side of the ball, Westmoreland torched the Jays with 265 yards on eight catches. He had touchdowns of 80, 55, 9 and 95 yards.

Tash competed 13-of-15 passes for 286 yards with four touchdowns.

The Jays were without key defensive players in senior lineman Brandon Backues and senior linebackers Bryant Gipe and Michael Heislen.

With those three missing multiple games this season, younger players got the chance to gain varsity experience.

Now it's time to pair that with the needed offseason work.

"We need to get in the weight room," Walker said. "It was really evident throughout the season. The teams we were playing against were bigger, stronger, faster for the most part, and some of that's due to the weight room.

"So we've got to get in the weight room and we've got to get better. We've got to get faster and we've got to be committed."

Joplin (10-0) continues its season Friday against fourth-seeded Kirkwood at home in the district semifinals.

The Pioneers (7-3) advanced by defeating No. 5 seed Northwest: Cedar Hill 54-7.