Blackford halts JC streak

There was no telling how either team would react after a gut-wrenching leg injury halted play for about a half hour.

The visiting Blackford Bruins were inspired to victory by their fallen teammate. After losing junior Jesse Case to a broken leg early in the game, they scored three times in the second half Thursday to knock off the Jay County boys soccer team 4-1.

"An injury like that, it can go either way," said Blackford coach Jeff Slusser, whose team improved to 5-2-1. "We didn't know how they would respond. They saw something that a lot of these kids have never seen before and will never see again. ... I think our kids took it as inspiration ... We bounced back from it and we're awfully proud of our kids."

Less than four minutes into the game, Case was running down the left side of the field trying to stop an attack by the Patriots' Jeremiah Cotherman. As Cotherman was preparing to cross the ball in front of the goal, Case planted awkwardly and snapped his lower right leg.

The injury, which left Case's bone jutting at an unnatural angle, drew a visceral reaction from fans and players alike. He was aided by his coach Jeff Slusser, who serves as an EMT in Kokomo, JCHS trainer Rita Bollenbacher and several fans before the ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital.

After the half-hour stoppage of play, Case's teammates needed just 11 minutes to get on the scoreboard.

Clint Blackburn pushed up the right side of the field and sent a crossing pass, which Derek Thomas deflected toward the goal. JCHS goalie Adam Daniels (five saves) got a piece of the ball, but it got past him and into the left corner of the goal for a 1-0 Bruin lead.

"That was critical," said Slusser. "That's the moment that you see how the kids are actually going to respond, because ... after an injury like that they say 'We're inspired. We're going to win one for our player that's down.' And it's easy to say that and it's the right thing to say, but when you see the goal and you see the intensity they brought to the field, that's when you knew it was for real. It wasn't just rhetoric. It was going to be inspiration for this game."

The Patriots (5-2), protecting a five-game winning streak, refused to go quietly.

Twelve minutes after the Thomas goal, Brad Horn worked his way through the left side of the Bruin defense. The JCHS senior recorded his 17th goal of the year to even the score at 1-1.

The score remained tied at the half, but Blackford grabbed the lead quickly after the break and the Patriots could not recover.

Blackburn got the first Bruin goal of the second half, shooting over Daniels' head from about 25 yards out. With 12:45 remaining Thomas blew through the middle of the JCHS defense and beat Daniels in a one-on-one situation, and with 5:43 to go Blackburn worked past Garrett Krieg on the left side and scored for the final margin.

"We got beat at our own game. They wanted it a lot worse than we did," said JCHS coach Alan Bailey, who had never lost to Blackford in his nine seasons. "The game that we try to play, they beat us with it. They had us on our heels and we couldn't recover from it.

"We've just got to go out and play our game the way we're capable of playing, and we just didn't do that in the second half. We had plenty of opportunities. We just couldn't finish it."

Goalie Jordan McCammon of the Bruins was responsible for a lot of the Patriots scoring difficulty. He made impressive saves against Horn and Patrick Johnson in the first half, stopped Horn on a one-on-one chance early in the second half and deflected a potential tying shot from Johnson up and over the crossbar with 13:42 remaining.

Jay County was also victimized several times by holding onto the ball too long and giving up possession deep in Blackford territory.

"That's been a little bit of our problem this year. It had been addressed I thought. We hold onto it too long when we should try to get that through ball or get the shot," said Bailey. "(We can't just) keep it at our foot because then three defenders crash on you and you lose the ball.

"I thought their goalie did an excellent job. He was really aggressive going after everything."

While thrilled with the victory, Slusser also expressed his appreciation for the way Case's injury was handled.

"The response of the Jay County people here and their fans, their coaches, their staff was outstanding," he said. "These are quality people.

"We look forward to playing them every year. We love the competition and the rivalry. But when it comes to the kids, we're all here for them, and I think it's obvious when something like that happens. You see it from both sides."

Jay County dropped the junior varsity game 4-1. Colton McCombs had the lone goal for the Patriots.[[In-content Ad]]