Patriots rally back

With just 10 minutes to play Tuesday, the situation looked bleak for the Patriots.
After back-to-back wins, they had led a 1-0 lead slip away and found themselves trailing 3-1 against a sectional rival. But then they found their stride.
Jay County scored three times in the final 9:12 to rally for a 4-3 boys soccer victory over the visiting Wapahani Raiders.
“Hopefully they learned something in that last 15 minutes,” said JCHS coach Alan Bailey, whose team has now won three straight after opening with six consecutive losses. “They’re a good team. … Our passing was tremendous.
“When we’re playing on our heels, we just don’t control the ball. Our touches were great in that last 15 minutes. That’s what we have to do all the time.”
The Patriots (3-6) trailed 3-1 at the half and still faced the same deficit with just 10 minutes left in the game. But Derek Bartlett, who had two of the team’s three goals in Saturday’s win over South Adams, got Jay County moving.
Dylan Swingley delivered a corner kick from the left side, and Bartlett came flying through the middle of the defense for a header to cut the deficit to one with 9:12 on the clock. Less than a minute later, the Patriots struck again.
JCHS, as it did many times in the final 10 minutes, maneuvered the ball into the 18-yard box. The Raiders (5-4-1) were unable to clear the ball, and in the chaos in front of the goal ended up knocking the ball into their own net. As the Patriot closest to the ball, Dillon Ainsworth was credited with the goal.
The Patriots stayed on the attack, keeping the ball on their offensive end for most of the final minutes. And it paid off for a third time.
Swingley again sent a pass in front the left side, and after Colton McCombs got his foot on it, Bartlett beat Wapahani goalie Brandon New to the ball near the right post. He knocked the ball off the right post and it caromed to the left corner of the goal for the game-winner with just 43 seconds remaining.
“Swingley sent a nice ball in there and we banged it around, and he just wanted it,” said Bailey of Bartlett, who also scored Jay County’s opening goal and finished with a hat trick.
“He went after it and he was going to put it in.
“He wants it. … Bart’s playing some good soccer right now. He’s got the desire.”
New took over in the net for Wapahani with 25:50 on the clock in the first half. He shut out the Patriots for more than 55 minutes before giving up three scores in the final 10.
Bartlett’s first goal came less than six minutes into the game as he took the ball right up the middle and scored to the left corner on passes from Aldo Castro and Dillon Ainsworth.
But the Raiders came back to tie the score on a Brandon Winningham goal seven minutes later, and then took the lead when Aaron Huxhold converted a goal at the 15:32 mark of the first half. Brandon Williams pushed the advantage to 3-1 with just one minute left before the intermission.
“We played the first five minutes great, controlled the ball,” said Bailey. “And then they got lucky and knocked one in on a mistake and our heads dropped. That’s happened to us in every loss — they knock one in and our heads drop and basically we’re on our heels the rest of the game.
“(Tonight) we got that taste back, they made a couple of mistakes, we tied it up and we were playing soccer again.
“Once they decided to drop back and play five or six men back on defense, that let us get a little bit of a push.”
“These kids have just got to believe in themselves.”
Jay County, which is now 2-1 against sectional opponents, could meet Wapahani again in the sectional tournament. The sectional group at Blackford originally included the host Bruins, Jay County, Delta and Union City. But the Raiders were shifted to the group because Union City did not field a boys team this season.[[In-content Ad]]