Oct. 17 -- JAMESTOWN -- Things haven't gone the way of the Blue Jays at Charlotte and Gordon Hansen Stadium this year.
But it is never because of a lack of effort.
The Blue Jay football team's 25-7 loss to Minot North on Thursday evening dropped the Jays to 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the Class AA West Region standings. The squad finished out its home schedule with a 1-3 record.
"The thing is is that it was a one score game until late in the third quarter," JHS head coach Bill Nelson said. "Then they got one and we just couldn't capitalize. We had a couple of turnovers, a couple of dropped balls and things just didn't go our way.
"It wasn't that we weren't playing hard," he said. "It just wasn't our night."
The third quarter might have been when the tides turned but from the opening kickoff, the Blue Jays had their hands full.
Minot North's hurry-up offense caught the Jays ill-prepared which allowed Josia Jaquinet to cap off a six play, 44 yard drive with a 10 yard touchdown run. Carter Coleman's PAT attempt was blocked leaving the score at 6-0 after one quarter of play.
Jamestown clapped back in the second.
A quick handoff from quarterback Ryan Kallenbach to Kelan Harstad resulted in a nine yard touchdown run to tie the ball game at six. Brady Harty put the pigskin through the uprights to give Jamestown its only lead of the evening, The 13 play drive covered 78 yards.
When Jamestown started to catch on to Minot North's game plan of running the football, the Sentinels switched to the passing game.
That proved effective.
On 4th and 6 Minot North signal caller Brayden Blikre aired out a 34 yard pass to Jaquinet who evaded Jamestown coverage to pick up his second score of the evening and put the Sentinels up 12-7. The Sentinels' two-point conversion attempt failed.
In the third, it looked like Jamestown found new life when Max Rittenbach forced a fumble and Jett Wharton recovered the ball to set the Jays up at the Sentinels' 37 yard line.
After a couple of good plays most notably a 12 yard run by Harstad, Kallenbach was picked off and Minot North capitalized -- again.
Cole Richeson finished out the Sentinels' drive with an 11 yard, touchdown run to put the visitors up by two scores. The drive covered 71 yards.
The big fourth quarter Jamestown needed, didn't materialize.
Minot North bled out the clock in the fourth, using almost six minutes to string together a 12-play, 58 yard drive that ended with the squad's fourth touchdown of the night to make it 25-7 with 3:21 left on the running clock.
"There was too many mistakes," Nelson said. "They wanted to win more than we did. They are a good football team -- we knew coming in that they are a good football team. They didn't deviate from anything that we saw we just couldn't get stops, couldn't get first downs."
Jamestown's game next week against Watford City is a must-win to keep the Jays' playoff hopes alive. The Wolves are sitting at 0-4 in the conference and 1-7 overall.
"We've got to rally the troops," Nelson said. "We've got to rest up and heal our bodies because we have to go out to Watford and win a football game if we want to extend our season. That's what it comes down to."
MIN-N: 10 yard run by Josia Jaquinet (Carter Coleman kick blocked), 0:03.
Second quarter
JHS: 9 yard run by Kelan Harstad (Brady Harty kick good), 6:44
MIN-N: 34 yard pass by Bilkre to Jaquinet (two-point conversion failed), 3:12.