Blue Jays snap streak: Jamestown gets first win since 2010 with road victory at Mandan

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The mental and physical frustration that comes with a 13-game losing streak can weigh a football team down indefinitely.

Jamestown dropped the bag of bricks on Friday night.

The Blue Jays scored touchdowns on their second and third drives and used stifling defense the rest of the way to edge Mandan 13-6 in Class AAA West Region action at Faris Field in Mandan.

The win is the first for Jamestown since a 34-27 victory at home over Grand Forks Central on Oct. 8, 2010. It also marks the first time Jamestown has won on the road since 2009, and the first time the Blue Jays have won a road game against a team currently in the West Region since Oct. 17, 2007.

It started out in style for the Blue Jays, as quarterback Matt Grounds connected with receiver Sean Lindberg on a 60-yard touchdown pass on a third-and-12 on their second possession. Grounds led the Blue Jays into Mandan territory on the first possession, but fumbled it away. Grounds was solid for most of the night, finishing 8-of-11 for 149 yards and an interception. He also ran 13 times for 31 yards.

On its next possession, Jamestown used a 14-play, 81-yard drive to go up two scores when senior Anthony Cook punched in from 3 yards out with 9 minutes, 22 seconds to go in the first half. Lindberg caught a 25-yard pass to help set up the score, and Cook did the dirty work, running nine times for 28 yards. He ended up with 80 yards on 24 carries.

Mandan answered before halftime with its only score, as Brady Zittleman took an end-around 4 yards for a TD.

Jamestown caught a break when Mandan workhouse running back Matthew Ziemann left the game with an injury in the second quarter and never returned.

The second half featured less big plays, and Mandan had the ball on its own 16-yard line with 1:36 to go and even got a 28-yard pass and catch from quarterback Ross Effertz to Daniel Peterson, who had a game-high four catches for 132 yards.

However, the Braves ran out of steam as a screen pass went for negative yardage, Effertz was sacked on second down and the Braves had to spike on third down to stop the clock. Effertz’s toss on fourth down fell incomplete to secure the win for Jamestown, which finished with 267 yards of total offense to 232 for Mandan (1-2 overall, 0-1 West Region).

Jamestown (1-2, 1-0) hosts Dickinson at 7 p.m. Friday at Ernie Gates Field.

Editor's note (added Sept. 11): Jamestown High School coach Tim Fletcher did not respond to multiple phone calls made by the Sun.

Jamestown 13, Mandan 6

Jamestown 7 13 13 13

Mandan 0 6 6 6

First quarter

J — Sean Lindberg 60 pass from Matt Grounds (Grounds kick), 6:27

Second quarter

J — Anthony Cook 3 run (kick failed), 9:22

M — Brady Zittleman 4 run (kick failed), 5:27

Team statistics

JHS MHS

Rushing 41-118 24-73

Passing 11-149 19-159

Totals 52-267 43-232

Individual statistics

Rushing: J, Cook 24-80, Grounds 13-31, Eathan Gumke 3-3, Taylor Orr 1-4. M, Brady Skytland 9-36, Tyler Sadowsky 5-20, Matthew Ziemann 3-13, Ross Effertz 4-3, David Payne 1-2, Zittleman 2-(-1).

Passing: J, Grounds 8-11-1 149. M, Effertz 8-19-1 159.

Receiving: J, Lindberg 2-92, C.J. Soulis 2-34, Cook 2-23, Marc Wagner 1-0. M, Daniel Peterson 4-132, Zittleman 3-24, Cameron Christopherson 1-2.

Turnovers: Jamestown 2 (fumble, interception), Mandan 2 (fumble, interception).

Sun sports writer Chris Aarhus can be reached at (701) 952-8462 or by email at caarhus@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, jays, football