It wasn't pretty, but it was a win.
Another strong defensive performance on Friday night up in Devils Lake helped lead the Jamestown High School football team to a 13-7 overtime victory over the Firebirds to wrap up the regular season.
Jamestown now has to play the waiting game and see who they will meet in the opening round of the Class A playoffs next Friday at Rollie Greeno Field. The Blue Jays finished out the regular season with a 7-2 overall record and a perfect 4-0 Class A West Region record.
The Blue Jay defense forced two early turnovers with Adam Kallenbach and Brode Hillstrom each securing an interception in the first quarter. After Hillstrom got the ball back for the Jays, quarterback Jackson Walters connected with Devin Beach from 27 yards out for a touchdown to put the Jays up 7-0. Jamestown held the one-score lead headed into halftime.
Quarterback Benjamin Heilman marched the Firebirds 89 yards down the field to even the score at seven apiece on a 15-yard pass with 2:37 left in the third quarter. Devils Lake had another opportunity to score in the middle of the fourth quarter following a Jamestown fumble, but the Blue Jay defense blocked the go-ahead field goal to keep the game tied at seven.
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"I give all the credit in the world to Devils Lake, the players, the coaches -- they showed up ready to play," JHS head coach Bill Nelson said. "We just weren't ready to play football tonight. That's on me as a head coach. We'll be ready to go and better next week, I promise you that."
Neither the Jays nor Firebirds were able to do anything on the offensive end the rest of the fourth quarter. The tied ball game forced overtime for the first time for either team in 2021.
Devils Lake got the ball first at the 10-yard line, but the Blue Jay defense forced a field goal attempt that came up short, to give Jamestown an opportunity to win the game.
On the Jays' first offensive, overtime play, Walters took the ball on the ground from 10 yards out, and with some help from his offensive line, got pushed into the endzone for the game-winning score.
In total, Jamestown finished with three turnovers created on defense, including a Preston Kroeber interception late in the fourth quarter. The Blue Jays ended the game with 175 total yards, 82 of which came on the ground. Walters was 9-21 through the air for 93 yards with the touchdown pass to Beach.
"We found a way to win," Nelson said. "We had the ball down at the two and ended up flipping the field and got the ball down at the other end but you can't just show up and expect to get a W. We'll be back and ready to go next week."
