Marion tops Patriots

The Patriots were unable to pick up their third straight victory.
They did, however, again show they are moving in the right direction.
Jay County’s girls soccer team closed the gap against a former sectional rival Thursday in a 2-0 loss to the visiting Marion Giants.
“They’re amazing,” said JCHS coach Abby Champ of the Giants, who her team lost to 5-1 last season. “We knew coming in they were a great team. ...
“We came into this game and said if we could (keep it close) we would be extremely happy.”
The Patriots were able to cut their losing margin against Marion in half thanks in large part to the efforts of goalie Mollie May.
Marion (3-0) unloaded a barrage of shots at the JCHS net, especially in the opening half, but May was there to reject almost all of them. She made a pair of saves on a point-blank shot from Kennedy Williams and a header by Sara Highbaugh early in the game.
She added back-to-back saves on consecutive tries by the Giants’ Laura Friday at the 23:25 mark before a second-chance goal snuck by just over a minute later.
May rejected a first shot by Hannah Conrad, but the Marion junior was able to gather the ball off the deflection. She fired another shot, which May had lined up for the save, but Giants’ sophomore Rachel Jumper redirected the ball to the right corner for the score.
A diving effort toward the right post by May stopped a shot by Lizzie Rittenhouse as she finished the first half with 16 saves.
“Jay County’s goalkeeper, she is very good with the high ball,” said Marion coach Idowu Ikudabo, whose teams have faced May five times over the last four seasons. “Any high ball she’s going to catch.
“She’s very aggressive. She’s very quick. I like her a lot.”While still playing most of the second half on their defensive end, the Patriots limited Marion to just four shots on goal in the final 40 minutes. The Giants converted one of them as Victoria Smith knocked in a header off a Friday corner kick with 15:12 remaining.
Jay County’s best scoring opportunity came as the final seconds ticked away. LeAnn Horn sent the ball up from the defensive end to Alex Loy and the sophomore sent the ball down the field beyond the defense. She chased it down to create a one-on-one situation with goalie Taylor Mills.
Loy got a shot off with about two seconds left on the clock, but it flew high over the goal as time expired.
“That’s one nice thing about these girls,” said Champ. “They don’t care who you are. They don’t care what your name is. They don’t think they’re better than them.
“They’re going to play to the very last second, which was clear, whether the score is 1-0 or 10-0.”
Despite the loss, Champ said she is happy with where her team stands with a 2-2 record and wins over Heritage and Connersville. The Patriots won just three games last season, scoring only 10 goals.
“We’re extremely happy right now,” said Champ. “Heritage was a big win … At 2-2 we’re really happy, especially since we have seven goals. We’re leaps and bounds ahead of where we were at this time last year.”

Junior varsity
Jay County suffered its first loss of the season 1-0 to the Giants.
Marion scored at the 14:15 mark of the first half and kept the Patriots (0-1-2) scoreless the rest of the way.
Catherine Dunn recorded the only two shots on goal for JCHS. Brooke Reynard finished with three saves.[[In-content Ad]]