Jay Co. falls to Trojans

Little has gone right for the two-time defending sectional champion Patriots thus far in 2010.
That pattern continued for the Jay County High School boys soccer team Tuesday as it suffered a 6-0 defeat to the visiting New Castle Trojans. The Patriots dropped their first two games of the year to Muncie Central and Heritage.
“We’re a dysfunctional team right now,” said JCHS coach Alan Bailey, whose team is 0-3 for the first time in his 10 years leading the program. “There’s just no rhyme or reason to us. It’s driving me crazy trying to figure out what we need to do. We can look so good, and a half-second later just look absolutely terrible again. … We’ve got to figure it out.”
Jay County and the Trojans (3-2) played scoreless for the first 14 minutes before Andrew Pheffer chipped a shot from the left side across the front of the goal to the right corner of the net. New Castle took command of the game four minutes later when Josh Dees hit a long crossing pass from the right corner and Jake Underwood cashed in for a 2-0 lead.
“I’m pleased with our guys’ efforts,” said New Castle coach Jacob White.
“We talk about going out and working hard early in the game to try to exert our will, and I think our guys did a nice job of getting a couple of early goals to open things up for us.”
The Trojans’ most impressive goal came with five minutes left in the opening half when Ben Hatfield lined up for a corner kick from the right side. He sent the ball floating in front of the net, and Drew Neuman connected with a header past first-year goalie Austin Cowan for a 3-0 advantage at halftime.
“We’ve tried to work a lot on our crossing,” said White. “I’m very pleased to be able to see service from the outside where we’ve got a big body in Drew Newman that’s able to go up and have a strong header to put one away.”
New Castle added three more goals in the second half, one each by Zack Clark, Josh Dees and Newman.
“We have a lot of inexperience out there still,” said Bailey, whose team managed just three shots on goal while allowing the Trojans to convert on six of their eight attempts. “We’ve got a goal keeper who, he’s trying his hardest, but we don’t get him in good situations where he can learn in a game. He’s been thrown right to the wolves.
“Defensively we look good for a while, and then we turn around and look bad.”[[In-content Ad]]