MCDONOUGH – In a game in which opposing defenses gave little ground, chances to score were limited on a drizzly Friday evening between Jones County and Ola.
But it was the homestanding Mustangs that made the most of those opportunities, turning field position off of a turnover into a scoring drive of less than 30 yards for a second-quarter touchdown. That’d be barely enough to deprive Jones County of a win Friday as the Greyhounds fell 7-3 in the first loss of the season.
“We had a lot of missed opportunities in the game,” Jones County head coach Mike Chastain said. “We have to be able to capitalize on the stuff they are giving us.”
If it was parity that one wanted, there was a lot of it Friday. Ola had just one more offensive possession than Jones County’s seven and had the ball for 20:47, one second more than the Greyhounds did. In the end, it was the Mustangs getting a bit more out of one short-field drive than the Greyhounds that made the difference.
Jones County heads back to Greyhound Field on Friday to face yet another team unbeaten in region play early on in Union Grove. The Wolverines, under new head coach Greg Harris, are 3-0 in the region with wins against Eagles Landing Christian, Woodland and McDonough. Union Grove’s three wins triples that of last year when the Wolverines went 1-9.
“They’re a lot better than they were last year. They’re undefeated in the region,” Chastain said of Union Grove. “They’ve improved every week and are a good ball club.”
>> CHECK OUT OUR FULL PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE GAME
Union Grove enters Friday in a three-way tie with Ola and Stockbridge for the region lead.
Jones County had a pair of second-half drives inside the Mustangs 30, coming away empty both times and also turned the ball over on downs inside the opposing five-yard line on their opening drive of the game. That turnover on downs, however, did lead to the game’s first points as it forced a short punt, setting JCHS placekicker Jacob Watts up for a 32-yard field goal as the Hounds led 3-0 with 10:21 to go until halftime. That lead would go away by halftime. After JCHS quarterback Devin Edmonds was intercepted, Ola took advantage of the short field, keeping the drive going by converting a fourth-and-one on the way to what would be the game-winning score.
Down 7-3 at the half, chances were there for Jones County to pull ahead thanks in large part to the Greyhounds defense that held the Mustangs to 182 offensive yards.
“I’m proud of our defense,” Chastain said.
“I thought our defense played extremely hard.”
But the Mustangs got a stop each time against the Greyhounds offense. One of them came on the heels of a big special teams play by Jones County, following a blocked field goal by Bruno Hicks.
Jones County got to work as Edmonds was able to keep the Mustangs off-balance, mixing up the pass game with his mobility to drive toward the opposite end zone.
Chances of a score would fade, however, as a touchdown to Jaivon Solomon was called back and a long field goal by Watts missed.
Jones County leaned on its air attack Friday, attempting 39 passes and running it 17 times.
Edmonds once again spread the passing game around, connecting on passes to nine receivers.
Of the 21 completed passes, a combined 16 went to Jaivon Solomon, KJ Johnson and Zacarri Thomas.
The Greyhounds had one more shot late to go in front. Driving from their own 30-yard line with 7:27 to go, JCHS kept the drive alive on a short fourth-down pass to Solomon, advancing the ball to the Mustangs 41 and then to the 28 before multiple passes in the end zone fell short, enabling Ola to take over on downs with less than four minutes to play.
