The Jayton Jaybirds hosted the Petersburg Buffaloes this past Friday night in Jayton in a game that never showed even a hint of competition. Bode Ham (5 carries 82 yards and 4 touchdowns) scored the first touchdown of the game with less than a minute off the clock and the Jaybirds never looked back. The mercy rule came into effect ending the game at half to the tune of a 52 to 0 Jaybird victory. Head Coach Josh Stanaland commented after the game, “Good game, kids came out and executed really well. We were really clean, I think we scored on every offensive possession, I think we flew around defensively. Outside of a couple of penalties I think we played a pretty complete ballgame. I’m proud of them.” Ham again led the offensive charge, but other notable performances were, Ayden Salazar who added 28 more yards and 2 scores on the ground and Sean Stanaland who passed for 82 yards and a score in a game where the offense did whatever they wanted. However, the most impressive unit on the night was the Jaybird defensive line that smothered the Buffalo offense allowing only 83 total yards from Petersburg. “Those guys, we challenge them each week to be bullies; we are so supremely athletic, if we can mentally figure out to be bullies on every snap; I think we’re seeing that develop in Justin [Collins], and in Colt [Gentry] and Ayden [Salazar] and Jace [Rivera] and those guys in the defensive line. I think that’s going to make us very hard to beat and that was our goal this week and I’m really proud of how they got after it”, said Stanaland. The Jaybirds rolled to 4-0 and will now take that perfect record to Silverton for a Thursday night showdown against the 3-1 Owls.
