Bearcats defeat JCHS

Tuesday’s opening game was not at all the way the Patriots hoped to kick off their season. Still, there’s a silver lining to be found.
Falling behind 2-0 early to the Muncie Central Bearcats, the host Jay County High School boys soccer team stumbled to a 4-1 defeat.
“That’s definitely a first game,” said JCHS coach Alan Bailey. “That’s the way we looked last year against these guys. It was the same thing. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The message Bailey delivered to his team after the game was that last season’s open was similar. In fact, Central shut out the Patriots 4-0.
But from there the team bounced back, winning five straight games. They went 12-3 in the remainder of the regular season and won their second consecutive sectional title before falling 1-0 to the Bearcats in the regional semifinal.
Now the challenge is to duplicate that effort.
Central’s win Tuesday came on the strength of ball control as it kept the ball mostly on its half of the field and limited Jay County to just four shots on goal.
“We kind of pride ourselves on playing a better style of soccer,” said Bearcats coach Shea Hill. “We hope to possess the ball a majority of the time and don’t try and force anything that doesn’t need to be forced. And that way when the goal opportunities present themselves we can take advantage.”
The Bearcats grabbed the lead early when they broke through the middle of the JCHS defense. Fabian House, a junior, cashed in the opportunity for a 1-0 lead they would never relinquish.
Senior Spenser Osborne added another goal to the left corner of the net for a 2-0 lead.
“They were a good team,” said Bailey of the defending regional champions. “Once you get up like that, things kind of go your way. And we were on our heels.”
Jay County pulled within one when a foul in the 18-yard box gave it a penalty kick with less than a minute left in the opening half. Sophomore Alex Dunn converted the opportunity to pull the Patriots to within one at halftime.
Dunn had another solid scoring opportunity in the second half when he took a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box. But his shot caromed off the crossbar, and House tallied his second goal of the game about a minute later.
Spenser Smith, a senior, came up with a steal and scored the fourth goal for Central with a high shot to the left corner.
Senior goalie Sam Parker had three saves for the Bearcats.
 “We’ve been excited, ready and waiting to get this team out on the field into a real game,” said Hill. “Until you get into a real game, you don’t know. We’re ecstatic with a 4-1 victory over these guys.”
Bailey said his team’s biggest issue during the game was its ball control, which helped Central stay in command for most of the game.
“(We need to work on) our passing. Our touches are terrible,” he said. “That’s been our focus for two weeks (of practice) and it’s not a fun thing to do, but the kids saw tonight that it’s the most important thing you can do on the soccer field. Our passing was atrocious. … Everything was behind. We weren’t talking with each other.”
Goalie Austin Cowan, a first-year soccer player as a junior, finished with nine saves for the Patriots.
Jay County will be back on the field at Heritage Thursday before returning to JCHS for four straight home games.[[In-content Ad]]