WALES — Jay High School was haunted by a recurrence of fumbleitis Saturday afternoon.

Turnovers, in back-to-back abundance against good Campbell Conference teams, cost the Tigers a Western Class C football playoff berth last fall. Now they can only hope five lost fumbles, and interception and a 20-8 loss to Oak Hill don’t have the same season-killing impact in 2009.

“I thought we had seven,” said Jay coach Mark Bonnevie, whose team was spared that extra giveaway by a roughing-the-passer penalty. “You know, I don’t care who you are, you’re not going to win games doing that.”

Four of those cough-ups came in the second half, leading directly to a pair of Oak Hill touchdowns and leaving both teams at 2-1 in the northern division. Josh Prue’s 5-yard TD rush restored the Raiders’ lead. Josh Allen applied the exclamation point with an 83-yard ramble in the fourth quarter.

Jay’s troubles could be Oak Hill’s treasure. The Raiders have posted two straight comeback wins after a 14-12 loss to Lisbon in their opener. Chris Eaton led the defensive windfall with a pair of fumble recoveries. Dillon Tibbetts, Ben Foss and Cody Provost each added a scoop. Brett Turcotte provided the pick in the Oak Hill secondary.

“We’re keeping our eyes open for fumbles all the time,” Eaton said.

Oak Hill gave away its 7-0 halftime lead with an unforced error of its own. When punter Tim Levesque stooped to cradle a low snap, his knee touched the ground, giving Jay possession at the Raiders 37.

Jordan DeMillo (26 carries, 159 yards) exploded for 14 yards on the next play and punctuated the short march with an 18-yard score. DeMillo also rushed for the two-point conversion and put Jay in front with 4:28 remaining in the third quarter.

“Both teams made mistakes,” said Allen, “but we capitalized.”

It was Eaton’s recovery of quarterback Zach Bonnevie’s fumbled exchange in Jay’s preferred shotgun formation that gave the Raiders new life at the Jay 19. Prue’s first carry dragged tackler Bonnevie to the 5, and Prue reached the end zone without a finger on his jersey on the next play. A bad snap on the extra-point attempt left it at 13-8 with 1:59 remaining in the third.

DeMillo rolled up 44 yards on a workmanlike drive that took Jay deep into Oak Hill territory to start the fourth. But Prue stripped the ball from the senior’s hands on his sixth carry of the series, and Eaton pounced at the 15.

“I felt pretty good about the way we controlled the line of scrimmage and moved the ball pretty much at will,” coach Bonnevie said. “We had those turnovers, and that happens, but they hurt us. We never recovered from that last one.”

Two plays later, Allen, who rushed for 95 of his 183 yards in the first half before watching Prue carry the load, took a pitch to the right and let his relative freshness speak for itself. He made two Jay tacklers miss at the point of attack before taking off down the Tigers’ sideline.

“It’s a buck sweep. The guard is our lead blocker, and we judge from there with our cuts,” Allen said.

Jay’s final two drives died in Oak Hill territory at the 36 (on Provost’s fumble recovery) and the 13 (on downs). 

Austin Clark, who lined up at halfback when Zach Bonnevie was behind center, completed 6-of-14 passes for 77 yards. His counterpart, Turcotte, completed three for 100 yards, including a 70-yard slant-and-go to Foss that gave the Raiders a 7-0 halftime lead.

“We knew that the safety was going to step up and that Ben was going to be wide open,” said Turcotte, a senior who noted that Oak Hill had never previously won a Homecoming game in his career.

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