Whether it was by short, middle or long-range, the Greyhounds found degrees of success throwing the ball against ELCA on Friday night. It all added up to a two-score lead early for Jones County, which hit big on a pair of long touchdown passes in the second half to take down the visiting Chargers 33-21 at Greyhound Field as Nate Vaughn hauled in three touchdown passes and had 149 yards receiving.
Friday’s win improved JCHS to 6-2 overall and 5-2 in the region. More tantamount is that it allowed Jones County to keep pace within a group of five teams vying not just for one of four postseason spots but region title hopes as well.
As the end of the season nears, the goal becomes more clear for the Greyhounds. After this week’s open date, Jones County needs to win Oct. 24 at Eagles Landing and Oct. 31 at home against Locust Grove for at least a share of the region title.
With so little margin for error, minding the task at hand is of primary focus, and Jones County did that on Friday.
It began with a short field courtesy of the Greyhounds defense as Zaire Jones recovered a fumble to set Jones County up inside the opposing 25-yard line. The Hounds needed a handful of plays to get on the board, as quarterback Cason Taylor’s screen was taken into the end zone from eight yards away by Vaughn, giving the Greyhounds a 7-0 lead with 6:43 left in the quarter. Jones County added another first-quarter score through the air, when Taylor found tight end Drew Williams across the middle in the end zone for a touchdown with 1:40 left in the first, moving the JCHS lead to 13-0.
The Chargers gained some offensive traction in the second quarter, using the quarterback draw and success through the screen game to trim the Greyhounds’ lead to 13-7. Jones County had a chance to extend its lead before halftime, driving inside the five-yard line where they were stopped on fourth and goal from the one, leading by six at the break.
JCHS adjusted on both sides of the ball from there, putting the game away in the second half. The Chargers were held scoreless prior to a pair of late scores when the outcome was all but assured.
“We knew that their quarterback was going to be a runner. We had watched plenty of film, so our kids knew that,” Greyhounds inside linebackers coach Chase Lundy said. “They had done some different things with formations that we had not seen, and we came in the second half and just played a little bit better than we did in the first half.”
That margin was widened thanks to the Greyhounds’ offense that got kickstarted in the second half via the downfield pass as Taylor found Vaughn deep for scores of 64 and 56 yards, giving Jones County a 26-7 advantage. Taylor was 16-of-24 for 220 yards and tossed a season-high four touchdown passes.
“We trained hard all week in practice. (Friday), It all paid off,” Vaughn said.
Friday’s pair of long touchdown passes came after Vaughn had a go-ahead score called back a week ago at McDonough in a game that the Greyhounds went on to win in overtime.
“I saw him break open twice and, I knew he’d come down with it,” Taylor said.
Jones County’s multipronged running attack paved the way for its final score. Laquan Pendelton stepped up a notch in the rotation with Bruno Hicks sidelined with an injury, and he took on the majority of the rushing load in a fourth-quarter drive that ended with him taking the ball 39 yards for a touchdown with 11:03 to play. Pendleton ended up leading the Greyhounds with 70 yards rushing on seven carries with Kaden Canty having 10 rushes for 43 yards.
“We’ve matured more in the past couple weeks. We’re trying to eliminate our excuses. That was our word for the week, ‘no excuses,’ so that is big for us to keep level-headed,” Lundy said. “We’re still doing good things, but we have to keep doing the right things.”
