Photo by Brandon McAuliffe
BY NOLAN RUTH
X – @RealNolanRuth
ARLINGTON— The last time the Jayton Jaybirds won a state championship Ronald Reagan was the president of the United States. The nearly four decade drought came to an end though on Wednesday afternoon as the school of just 53 students came out on top over the Oakwood Panthers 54-8 by mercy rule at halftime.
The win was the first for head coach John Stanaland, who has been at the helm of the Jaybirds for 18 years. Though a constant playoff contender, 2024 turned out to be the year for Jayton to finally get over the hump and host the gold trophy.
“It hasn’t quite hit yet,” Stanaland said in his postgame press conference. “It happened so fast. I’m proud of these kids. It feels like something we’ve been working for for a long time. I’m thankful…”
The game started off well for the Jaybirds as they forced the Panthers to go three-and-out on the opening drive. The punt went off of the upback and was downed 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage to give Jayton excellent field position. Two plays later, running back Bode Ham fumbled into the end zone where Colt Gentry was luckily standing to fall on the ball for the touchdown to make it 8-0.
Oakwood was able to take the ensuing drive all the way down to the Jaybird two yard line, but a fumble was scooped up by Gentry and taken all the way back, making it 16-0. Gentry was later named the Defensive MVP of the game. He found the end zone one more time on a 16-yard pass from Sean Stanaland just before the end of the first quarter.
After forcing another punt, a rarity in six-man, Stanaland ran the option and pitched it to Ham from two yards out. The pitch was ruled forward and so officially counted as a pass to put Jayton up 30-0. The defense then forced a fumble to set up another touchdown from Ham on a 37-yard rush.
This time the Panthers had a response. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Dayden Velasquez threw deep to Brady Harrison who made the catch from 60 yards out to get Oakwood on the board at 38-8. That was all they could muster.
The Jaybirds found the endzone twice more on runs from Stanaland from 13 and 15 yards respectively. After the game was called by mercy rule with a score of 54-8 in favor of Jayton, Stanaland was named Offensive MVP of the game having completed seven of eight passes for 102 yards and 2 touchdowns, adding 28 yards on the ground, scoring on his only two rushes.
Jayton’s season comes to a close with a perfect 15-0 record with only one game not ending by mercy rule, and the 1A Division II state title.
