Jay shuts out Golden Eagles

The Patriots suffered a shutout loss Tuesday to undefeated New Castle. Two days later, they paid it forward to Oak Hill.
After about a half-hour rain delay, the Jay County High School girls soccer team controlled most of the game Thursday and defeated the visiting Golden Eagles 3-0.
“We’re happy,” said JCHS coach Abby Champ, whose team had lost four in a row since opening the season with consecutive wins. “We passed well. We talked really well. And we finally got some good goals, hard (shots) to stop. That’s what we want to see.”
Jay County (3-4) missed on several good scoring opportunities in the first 30 minutes before breaking through to take the lead for good.
After a throw-in from the right side, Sammi Compton sent the ball to the center of the field where Alex Loy hit a header. The ball ended up at the feet of Gabbie Mann.
The freshman controlled the ball, turned and hit a quick shot off her left foot. The ball lofted over the head of Oak Hill goalie Elizabeth Guarneri, just under the crossbar and into the right corner of the net.
“One of her goals was to start taking more shots with her left foot,” Champ said. “When she’s in the center it really messes up the defense. …
“They’re assuming she’ll take it off her right and then she just turns around and then she gets open looks.”
The Patriots extended their lead midway through the second half when junior defender Maddie Bailey dropped in a shot off of a corner kick from Catherine Dunn.
JCHS got its final goal after Bailey sent a free kick from 30 yards out into the 18-yard box and Oak Hill was called for a hand ball. Dunn converted the ensuing penalty kick for the 3-0 margin at the 11:48 mark.
The score was reward for a strong game from Dunn, who dominated the right side of the field in the second half and took a team-high five shots on goal.
“Catherine was phenomenal,” said Champ. “She’s aggressive. You can tell she’s more mature in her soccer this year from last year. And you can tell she has the experience because … she’ll just take it to you.”
Oak Hill’s best opportunities to score came late in the first half, when the Golden Eagles (5-4-1) earned two corner kicks in the final 90 seconds. But they failed to get the ball in the net, and had trouble keeping control of the ball throughout the game.
“We came out flat, not ready to work for the ball hard,” said Oak Hill coach Andrea Wilson. “Jay County’s a good team.
“We have a couple of girls that got hurt last night … so that hurt us a lot. They didn’t get to play at all, so we were subbing people around … We didn’t have good first touches and weren’t fighting for the ball enough.”
The Golden Eagles were without seniors Shye Biddle, the team’s sweeper, because of an ankle injury and Danielle Wood, a midfielder, because of a concussion.
Mann finished with two shots on goal for the Patriots, and Mariah Bailey, Maddie Bailey and Compton each added one.
Brooke Reynard made three saves as she recorded her first career shutout.[[In-content Ad]]