By Esley Thorton's estimation, watching from the sideline isn't the best way to watch a football game.

So when Bismarck's junior quarterback returned Friday after missing the Demons' first two games, he made up for lost time, throwing three touchdown passes and running for another score to lead Bismarck to a 35-6 win over Jamestown.

Jake Miller put the game on ice with his second touchdown, a 70-yard sprint untouched on the first play of the second half.

Miller ran 10 times for 107 yards and caught 34-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.

Thorton completed six of 15 passes for 166 yards. He threw a 48-yard TD pass to Calvin Krueger and a 63-yarder to Nick Jolliffe. Thorton also scored on a 13-yard run.

"It sucks watching, but it just makes you that much more hungry, and makes you want to work that much harder," Thorton said. "It was a learning experience and it's awesome to be back."

For the second straight game, Jamestown was awful in the second half.

One week after blowing a 32-14 halftime lead and losing 61-46 to Wahpeton, the Blue Jays gave up 19 points in the first seven minutes of the third quarter.

Jamestown didn't score until Mike Bangs threw an 8-yard TD pass against the Demon reserves with 2:54 remaining.

Against the Bismarck starters, the Jays managed just 16 total yards (minus-23 rushing) and two first downs.

Bismarck coach Mark Gibson said he wanted to see how his team responded after losing a heatbreaker last week at West Fargo.

He wasn't happy with a first half that included two lost fumbles and at least two sure touchdown passes that were dropped.

Still the Demons led 16-0 at the break.

"I wanted us to limit our penalties and our mistakes, and early we didn't do that. Later we did," Gibson said. "I just wanted to see us start better."

Despite facing non-stop blitzes, Thorton hooked up with Calvin Krueger from 48 yards for the opening score.

The Demons went up 9-0 when the defensive front swarmed all over Dakotah Walker for a safety after Zach Jacobson's punt had pinned the Jays on their on 1-yard line.

After a series of three-and-out possessions by both teams late in the half, Bismarck caught a break when Miller intercepted a Bangs pass on the Demons' 47-yard line with 40 seconds left.

On second-and-10 from the Jays' 34, Miller simply ran a post pattern through the Jamestown secondary and hauled in a perfect pass with 5 seconds left.

"They kept blitzing, that's when we went to the deep routes," Thorton said. "You're not going to see a lot of completions like that, but you're going to get some big plays when they're in man coverage."

Gibson was happy with the score, but not with the fact that the Demons had only 54 yards rushing at the break.

"We challenged the kids at halftime about running the football," Gibson said. "I wasn't happy with the way we ran the football in the first half. We didn't run the ball with authority. Jake Miller kind of took it to heart."

Miller's breakaway on the first play of the third quarter started a scoring explosion by the Demons, who finished with 168 yards on the ground.

After forcing the Jays to go three-and-out, Thorton hit Jolliffe of a pass over the middle. Jolliffe weaved his way to the end zone for a score.

Two plays later, Jamestown fumbled, giving the Demons the ball on the Jays' 18. Thorton scored three plays later.

"We were all pretty fired up after last week's loss (at West Fargo) and we knew we had to get better," Thorton said. "We made it a priority to have a good game and that's what we did."

Jamestown 0 0 0 6 - 6

Bismarck 9 7 19 0 - 35

Scoring

First Quarter

Bismarck: Calvin Krueger 48 pass from Esley Thorton (Krueger kick), 5:32.

Bismarck: Safety, Dakotah Walker tackled in the end zone, 3:14.

Second Quarter

Bismarck: Jake Miller 34 pass from Thorton (Krueger kick), :05.

Third Quarter

Bismarck: Miller 70 run (Krueger kick), 11:43.

Bismarck: Nick Jolliffe 63 pass from Thorton (run failed), 7:56.

Bismarck: Thorton 13 run (kick failed), 4:55.

Fourth Quarter

Jamestown: Brian Sinner 7 pass from Mike Bangs (run failed), 2:54.

Team Statistics

Jamestown Bismarck

First downs 6 12

Rushes-yards 27-15 40-168

Yards passing 135 166

Passing 10-20-3 6-15-0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-2

Punts-average 6-25.3 5-39.6

Penalties-yards 1-5 4-25

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Jamestown - Mike Bangs 17-(minus 18), Charles Regan 3-6, Dakotah Walker 5-17, Kyle Walden 2-10. Bismarck - Esley Thorton 7-20, Tyson Gibson 2-0, Carson Winkels 3-(minus 2), Jake Miller 10-107, Neiko Pascua 4-9, Austin Gunderson 1-3, Devin Elkin 5-20, Levi Kinnischtzke 4-6, Channing Mann 4-5.

Passing: Jamestown - Bangs 10-20-3, 135 yards. Bismarck - Thorton 6-15-0, 166 yards.

Receiving: Jamestown - Jordan Piatz 2-61, Brian Sinner 5-64, Ben Walker 2-7, Jordan Lynch 1-3. Bismarck - Calvin Krueger 2-61, Nick Jolliffe 2-65, Miller 1-34, Tyler Peterson 1-6.

Records: Jamestown 0-1 West Region, 1-2 overall; Bismarck 1-0 West Region, 2-1 overall.