Patriots earn OAC win

The Patriots picked up their third win Monday.

Two of them have come in the Olympic Athletic Conference.

That means the OAC title is just one more victory away.

Using an aggressive attack, the Jay County High School girls soccer team got two first-half goals from freshman Sammi Compton on the way to a 2-1 victory over the visiting Anderson Highland Scots.

"As soon as that Connersville game was over ... that's what we've talked about," said JCHS coach Abby Champ of the OAC championship, which the Patriots can lock up Saturday when they visit Muncie Southside at 10 a.m.

After a quiet opening 10 minutes, Jay County (3-6, 2-0 OAC) had a couple of near misses before getting on the board first.

The opening goal started when Tiffany Huelskamp blasted a shot from at least 25 yards out. It bounced toward Highland goalie Tori Brown, but she and Compton arrived to the ball at the same time. It deflected off the pair of players and toward the goal.

Compton was able to get to it first, rushing ahead of Brown and Scots' defender Michaela Hammel. She sent the ball to the open net for the 1-0 lead with 24:12 on the clock.

"I'm really happy," said Arnold, complimenting Compton on her effort on another play late in the game and the work of her offense overall. "We were crashing the goal today. That's how the (first) goal was made. It was a shot the goalie dropped and we crashed.

"My forwards push up and we were out-running them."

It took less than two minutes for Huelskamp and Compton to combine on the front and back ends of another score.

Huelskamp took control of a punt from Brown several yards inside the midfield line and sent a pass up to Mariana Garcia.

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She passed forward to Compton, who took a couple of dribbles past the final Highland defender before shooting to the right corner for her second goal.

"Tiffany is a very smart player," said Champ. "She knows the game, she understands it. ... She's a huge contributor for us."

Trailing 2-0 less than 18 minutes into the game, the Scots (1-8, 1-1 OAC) hopes of a comeback rested on Marissa Goodwin. The junior forward was the key to most of her team's pushes up the field, and she got past the left side of the defense to pull Highland within one with 15:43 on the first half clock.

However, the Scots' scoring opportunities were few and far between as they had just five shots on goal. Patriot goalie Mollie May came up with saves on four of them.

"They came out and played hard to start the game," said Scots' coach Kyle Davy of Jay County. "We didn't really start as hard as we should have, which has been one of our problems this season. That's usually when our goals get scored on us.

"(Goodwin) works hard, and we expect a lot out of her. She played well and got us our goal to get us back in the game."

Highland's only win this year came over Muncie Southside.

Jay County, which halted a four-game losing streak, was in control for most of the second half, getting one of its several scoring chances on a LeAnn Horn push up the field. They also had an opportunity off of a Mallory Poole corner kick late in the game.

Compton led the team with three shots on goal, and Bruggeman followed with a pair. Huelskamp, Poole and Brittany Manor each added one.

Champ noted that effort was a huge reason the Patriots were able to keep Highland scoreless over the final 55 minutes.

"Moser, Phillips and Horn hustled so much during that second half," said Champ.[[In-content Ad]]