As time expired Friday night at Greyhound Field, history became official as Jones County’s 41-26 win against Veterans made head coach Mike Chastain the winningest coach in program history.
So perhaps fittingly, the milestone win came by way of something that many of those wins during his tenure in Gray have been marked by – big offensive numbers.
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Jones County on Friday showed that, despite a pair of receivers off of last year’s team – Zion Ragins and Tyler Stewart now being at Oklahoma and Temple – was no reason for a lack of offense to be on display.
Quarterback Devin Edmonds was 18-of-27 for 293 yards and four touchdowns, tossing touchdown passes to three different receivers. Two of those were hauled in by Jaivon Solomon with the other two by Jayden Johnson and Zach Hurt.
JCHS rolled up 398 offensive yards overall against the Warhawks.
“It’s real exciting to have all of these receivers,” Edmonds said. “With what they can do, it makes me look good. We have a lot of guys that can fly around the ball and make plays.”
Now 1-0, Jones County begins nine straight games of region play Friday when it hosts Woodland Stockbridge. The Wolfpack went 0-10 last year and is 0-1, but that does not mean there is a lack of offensive confidence for Woodland, which lost 38-35 last week to Woodland Cartersville.
The Greyhounds moved the ball from the start, taking the ball inside the Veterans 15-yard line on their opening drive before being stopped in fourth and short. Jones County didn’t have to wait much longer for another scoring chance, and it was set up by the defense after Andre Hall came up with a fumble.
Edmonds kept the ensuing drive alive, completing a fourth-down pass to Jayden Johnson.
Solomon took it from there, diving in the end zone to haul in a 19-yard pass from Edmonds. Veterans fought back, driving to score on a one-yard run by Justin Shine on the heels of a 35-yard completion, tying the score 6-6.
But Solomon had an answer to that salvo, this time on special teams as he ran the ball back inside the Warhawks 30-yard line. After a run by Zacari Thomas and well-placed screen pass to Bruno Hicks, Thomas ran the ball in for a 13-6 lead with 1:36 left in the first following a Jacob Watts PAT. Thomas led the Greyhounds on the ground, carrying the ball 13 times for 59 yards.
Veterans opened the second with a scoring drive of its own, tying the score at 13-13. That’s when JCHS had another special-teams answer. The Warhawks being unable to boot the kickoff into the end zone proved costly, as Solomon ran the kick back 94 yards for a touchdown and 20-13 with 6:53 to go in the second.
The Greyhounds were not done with the big plays on special teams. With Veterans in punt formation, the snap was mishandled. David Little was right there to pounce on the ball, giving JCHS possession in prime field position inside the 15-yard line. A handful of plays later, Edmonds found Solomon from 10 yards away for the touchdown, moving the lead to 27-13 with 2:53 remaining until halftime.
Then, it was the defense’s turn to set up a score, giving JCHS 20 firsthalf points off turnovers.
After a fumble recovery, Edmonds hit an open Zach Hurt from 30 yards away.
Following that score and a late score to end the half by Veterans, the Hounds led 34-20 at halftime.
Aside from the forced turnovers, the Greyhounds defense had a strong opening performance, holding the Warhawks scoreless for all but one drive of the second half.
Veterans was held to 3-of-13 on third downs and to just three offensive plays of more than 20 yards.
Jones County added a touchdown in the fourth quarter, Edmonds’ final one of the night, when he connected with Jayden Johnson from 33 yards away before Veterans scored late to make the final score 41-26.
