Jay boys shut out in final

YORKTOWN — The Patriots were playing for a shutout.
For a half, that strategy worked. But they were unable to hold off Yorktown for the full 80 minutes.
The host Tigers broke a scoreless tie nine minutes into the second half Saturday and went on to hand Jay County a 2-0 defeat in the Class 2A Sectional 15 boys soccer championship game at Yorktown Sports Park.
The JCHS defense was under constant pressure and finally cracked on a corner kick after playing nearly 50 minutes of scoreless soccer.
“That was basically what we wanted to do,” said Bailey of keeping the game in a scoreless tie. “We wanted to play these guys nothing-nothing and try to get to a shootout. … We had to think defense.
“They kept driving the ball down. Our kids were doing the job keeping it cleared out, but the ball started to turn around going the other way. I think we ended up giving them 12 corner kicks. A team like that puts the pressure on you, and when you can’t get it pushed out, that’s going to happen.”
Senior Brandon Siler hit the corner kick that led to the first goal of the game. He sent the ball from the right corner all the way to the left side of the 18-yard box, where classmate Thommy Brown was there to hit a header inside the left post.
“Siler is one of our two corner kick guys,” said Yorktown coach Zach Rabenstein. “In practice he’s been very confident. He put it in the right spot and our senior went and finished it.”
The victory marked the fourth straight sectional title for the Tigers, who defeated JCHS 4-1 in last season’s championship game. They will advance play Marion in the regional semifinal round of the tournament at 7 p.m. Thursday at Kokomo.
Rabenstein said he was concerned at halftime after watching Jay County turn away so many scoring opportunities in the opening half.
“We knew Jay County was a good team,” he said. “We felt we could out-possess them and out-shoot them, but going in scoreless was really a downer. We were giving Jay County life and we didn’t want to. We wanted to put them away. So we talked at halftime about finishing our chances.
“It’s demoralizing for a defense to just keep having to get it out and out and out. We were able to kind of wear them down.”
Yorktown (12-6) kept the pressure on after the Brown goal, and came through again after Patriot goalie Kyle Dirksen came up with two saves on shots by Adam Lloyd.
With 20:23 on the clock, junior Derek Fox launched a high shot from about 25 yards out and Dirksen was unable to get to it as the Tigers took the two-goal lead.
Jay County’s best scoring opportunity in the second half came with about 15 minutes to play, when goalie Ryan Curts came out of the net. Patriot junior Alex Abbott beat Curts to the ball, but Brown bailed out his teammate by deflecting the ball away.
Alex Dunn and Zach Fullenkamp also made a strong run up the right side late in the first half with Dunn crossing the ball into the box, but no one was able to get a shot away.
Dunn, who led the Patriots with 20 goals this season, and Abbott each finished with two shots on goal.
Despite the loss, Bailey said he was happy with the way his defense battled the Tigers.
JCHS played the game without senior defenseman and four-year starter Brandon Poore, who was benched because of a violation of team rules.
“He was excellent,” said Bailey of Dirksen, who racked up 13 saves before giving way to Kevin Scott in the final 10 minutes. “He had a header that goes in, but he took some nice hard shots. He did a good job in the net.
“I thought our backs all played well,” Bailey added, especially noting seniors Ravi Patel and Kyle Siegrist. “The whole back line I thought played excellent.
“I knew they were going to leave it on the field. … They stepped out and played.”


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