Jones County stuck to a tried-and-true formula on Friday against Eagles Landing.
A 42-0 shutout win on senior night over the Eagles came as they leaned heavily on the screen pass and made it work very well, piling up 394 offensive yards in a contest that ended with the running clock in place.
Jones County will conclude the regular season Friday at Locust Grove before a week off prior to the start of the state playoffs Nov. 15-16.
Locust Grove is 4-5 overall but improved compared to previous seasons. The Wildcats’ three wins are triple the amount of their combined wins the past three seasons with their 223 combined points scored the most for them since 2018.
“There’s no doubt they are improved. They struggled early in the year, but if you look at their scores, they put up 40-something against Stockbridge, they scored nearly 50 last week,” Greyhounds head coach Mike Chastain said. “They can really score points in a hurry. They’re a great-looking football team and are not hurting for size or length.”
JCHS goes into Friday’s trip up the road to Locust Grove on the heels of taking control early last Friday against Eagles Landing. Jones County may have taken a 7-0 lead just over four minutes into the game on a short pass, but it wasn’t too different than how Devin Edmonds got the Hounds downfield on quick screens to Jaivon Solomon and Zacarri Thomas that both converted into big yardage. The end result? A four-yard screen to Solomon for a touchdown and 7-0 lead with 8:44 left in the first. Both Solomon and Thomas went past the century mark in receiving yards on Friday, amassing 102 and 107 yards.
“They executed it well, and everything kind of came together, almost like you draw it up,” Chastain said. “We were really excited to have that be successful.”
Field position helped JCHS hold onto the early edge.
After forcing the Eagles into a three and out inside their own five-yard line, the immediate result after a punt was Thomas rumbling 40 yards for a touchdown run, zigging and zagging through the Eagles on the way to the end zone and a 14-0 advantage. Thomas led JCHS on the ground, rushing it eight times for 57 yards.
The second quarter was a tale of refusing to mess with success. The pair of Greyhounds scores were similar – screen passes of 37 yards to Thomas and 36 to Solomon. Both ended up being touchdowns and made it a 28-0 halftime lead.
Jones County continued to tee off defensively against the Eagles in the second half, denying scoring threats time after time. All of that laid the way for more complimentary football. JCHS led 35-0 in the third quarter when Edmonds, who was 21-of-28 for 286 yards and four touchdowns, found Solomon in the back corner of the end zone for a touchdown.
Linebacker DJ Ingram, who like Thomas has seen extensive time as linebacker and in the offensive backfield, got into the end zone for the last Jones County score of the night, taking it in from a yard away on a direct snap following the recovery of an errant snap on an Eagles punt.
