Late goal lifts JCHS

Nearly 200 minutes. Well over three hours.
That’s how long the Patriots and Knights had battled each other without scoring a goal. Another tie, this time without overtime or a shootout, was looming.
But as the seconds ticked away toward the final buzzer, LeAnn Horn came through.
The Jay County High School senior scored off a Maddie Bailey corner kick with just 32 seconds remaining Thursday to lift the Patriot girls soccer team to a 1-0 victory over visiting Norwell.
“Oh my gosh,” said Horn. “That’s probably the best goal of my career. It was amazing.”
The Patriots caught Norwell goalie Haley Heller out of position with 1:10 left, but defender Lexie Myers stepped in and was able to clear a shot by Catherine Dunn. Still, the home team eventually ended up with the corner kick.
Bailey, a sophomore, came from her position on defense to take the kick from the right side, and sent a high ball right in front of the goal. Sarah Bauermeister of the Knights tried to head the ball away, but missed.
Horn took advantage, getting in front of the ball and deflecting it toward the net with her right thigh. Heller was left with no chance to stop the ball as it flew into the net to give the Patriots the advantage with barely more than a half-minute remaining.
“Maddie placed it there perfectly,” said Horn. “It couldn’t have gotten any easier than that. And the goalie backed off, so you run and you take it.”
“I was just hoping to get it to somebody so they could score,” said Bailey. “(When it went in) I just got a bunch of goose bumps and couldn’t stop smiling. It felt pretty good.”
Any goal, at any time, had been a rarity in recent action between Norwell (1-6) and the Patriots.
In the 2010 regular-season meeting, a 1-1 tie, no one scored for the final 33 minutes, 27 seconds. The squads met again in the sectional tournament at Marion, playing to a scoreless tie through regulation and overtime before the Knights won in a penalty kick shootout.
And Thursday’s first 79 minutes brought the total to 197 consecutive minutes of scoreless play between the two teams before Horn, who also had the lone score in the regular-season game a year ago, finally broke through.
“The last 90 seconds were exciting,” said JCHS coach Abby Champ. “The first 38-and-a-half minutes, a little rough. But you know what, a win is a win. It doesn’t matter if you do it with one second to go or the first second in the game.”
The win lifted Jay County to 4-2 on the season, already surpassing its win total from the 3-10-3 campaign a year ago. The team, which has 10 more games on its regular-season schedules, has not won more than five in a season since going 8-5-1 in 2006.
“The girls put a lot into it,” said Horn. “We have a lot of girls who are committed … We practice to win, and we play to win.”
“We have five seniors, and all five seniors were voted as captains,” added Champ in reference to Tiffany Huelskamp, Nikka Chaney, Mollie May, Kassi Hemmelgarn and Horn. “That just tells you something about the leadership we have out there. … It trickles all the way down. … They come to practice to work, and they work extremely hard.”
Jay County had a variety of scoring opportunities, especially in the second half, before Horn tallied the game-winner.
Freshman Catherine Dunn started a couple of those chances with passes up to Ericka Reynolds. The first try ended up with Heller making a diving save on a shot by Reynolds. On the second, Reynolds sent a crossing pass to Sammi Compton in the middle, but her shot went straight into Heller’s arms.
Compton again hit a shot right at Heller at the 13:03 mark after taking a pass from Amber Huelskamp, and a shot from Alex Loy went over the top with 10:16 left.
“We shot straight at the goalie,” said Champ. “When it gets down there in a one-on-one, you’ve got to hope you’re going to make all of those, which we did Tuesday night which is why we won 4-0 (over Huntington North) … Tonight we were sending them right to the goalie.”
Jay County finished with seven shots on goal, including three from Compton and a pair by Horn. May had a couple of saves for the Patriots.
Senior Lauren Johnson had a pair of shots on goal for the Knights.
“That’s a tough way to lose,” said Norwell coach John Proegler. “It was a heart-breaker. …
“We had plenty of opportunities to finish, to put the ball away. It really comes down to, you have to have the patience … to finish when you have the opportunity in front of the goal.”

Junior varsity
Jay County played most of the game on its defensive half of the field, falling 4-0 to the Knights.
Norwell scored once in the first half and then added three goals in a span of just nine minutes in the second. Brooke Reynard had four saves for the Patriots (0-2-2), who finished without a shot on goal.[[In-content Ad]]