Football Friday: Bethune gives Jays a spark in regular-season finale

O'FALLON - Late in the first half, the Jefferson City football team had its back against the wall.

Fort Zumwalt West had the ball late in the second quarter up three points and would get the ball to start the second half. A score to give the Jaguars the ball and a two-possession lead out of the break would have been a tough hill to climb, considering they had scored on their first three possessions of the evening.

Instead, David Bethune gave the Jays a spark.

Jaguars quarterback Mikey Ludwig threw a downfield pass over the head of his receiver, who tipped the ball up in the air. Bethune pounced on it and swerved through a sea of players before skipping into the end zone to give the Jays a 21-17 lead and turning the tide of the game that ended with Jefferson City winning 50-37 to finish its regular season.

"I didn't want to drive on it because it was so high, so I just waited until he tipped it and it went over his head and I made a play on it," Bethune said.

The next play after Bethune's pick-6, he undercut a deep route and got another interception. This one ended the threat of a Jaguars score to conclude the half and ensure a Jays lead at the break.

Bethune also put the nail in the coffin two quarters later with a 40-yard touchdown run with 2:00 left to put the Jays up two scores.

"He's a great player and good for him with all the work that he's done, all the things that he's experienced here," Jefferson City coach Damon Wells said. "I couldn't come up with enough adjectives for all the positive things to say about him."

From then on a shootout continued, with the Jays defense making enough timely stops in the secondary to combine with a run defense that limited big plays. Jaguars back Kyle Nunn's 23-yard score on the first play of the fourth quarter was his longest run of the night and one of the team's two runs for more than 10 yards.

Like he has been all season, Bethune was a big-play machine on offense. He finished with 193 yards on 13 carries and a pair of rushing scores to go with his defensive score.

"I've always got to win the one-on-ones," Bethune said. "If there's one guy in front of me, I can't lose. And if I get away, I can't get caught."

Bethune wasn't caught Friday night. He was able to use his speed on scores from 40 and 83 yards. His speed in space stretched the defense since he'd leave defenders behind whenever he got into the open field.

"I told you," Kevion Pendelton said after the game. "If you try to stop me, you can't stop David."

The Jaguars were able to bottle up Pendelton on a number of runs, but the defense wasn't able to consistently stop either member of a duo that has terrorized most defenses it's gone against. Pendelton used his wiggle and change of direction ability to cut through the defense for runs up the middle. He finished with 26 carries for 245 yards and three scores.

Hayden Wells added a 1-yard score in the middle of the third quarter, but it was the same formula as the past six weeks offensively for the Jays. Good offensive line play got Pendelton and Bethune the space they needed to bust out some big runs, while Wells scripted some misdirection on handoffs to keep the defense off-balance and create big plays.

The offensive line was strong again this week, showing some dramatic improvement from the beginning of the season.

"My sophomore year when I started, those guys are a lot smaller than the guys we had then," Bethune said. "But these guys have that mindset to keep going and pushing each other and they actually want to be here and play with us and practice. That was a big difference with this young offensive line."

The defense came up big in the fourth quarter, stopping the Jaguars on their final three drives in the final 11:55. There was incremental progress there, especially considering the unit has only needed a couple of turnovers or timely stops to secure victories with the offense rolling most weeks.

"(It's) coaching," Wells said. "Kids being open to that coaching. We practice for a reason and we hope to continue to get better."

Those stops gave the Jays their fifth win in their past six games, heading into postseason play with positive momentum from two straight wins where they were down early.

"They've gotten to the point where they're not worrying about being winners anymore," Wells said. "They're not worrying about winning. They're just winners."

This has also been the Jays' best regular-season record since 2016 when the Jays also finished the regular season 5-4 before finishing the year 6-5. As the No. 2 seed in Class 4 District 5 with a bye this weekend, the Jays have an opportunity to match that record at the very least and have a chance to get their first postseason win since 2016 and play for a district title.

Those firsts alone show an improvement during the course of the season for a unit that started the year 0-3.

"What a great group of boys," Wells said. "They're thirsty for knowledge and they will work their hind ends off. When you hear people say negative things about kids today, that's not these kids. These kids are everything that's right about being a teenager in high school sports."

Now the Jays get a bye week before they turn towards postseason play, where they will host the winner of Kirksville and Marshall in the district semifinals Nov. 5 at Adkins Stadium. If the Jays win that matchup, they will likely get a rematch with No. 1 seed and undefeated Hannibal for the district title.

"We're going to keep playing," Bethune said. "We're going to keep running hard and we're going to keep scoring and we're going to keep defending. Don't count us out."