Philosophy shifts for Jay

In soccer, when a team is inexperienced, it tends to lean toward the defense in hopes of winning low-scoring games. That is the situation Jay County finds itself in this year.

While the Patriots have several strong players back from the history-making 2008 squad, they were hit hard by the graduation of nine seniors after their 18-1-1 season.

"We're going to more defenders," said JCHS coach Alan Bailey, whose team won the 2008 sectional and regional titles before falling 4-0 to Warsaw in the semi-state semifinals. "We're going to have to be one of those teams that is going to have to win games 1-0, hopefully get that one-goal lead, pack the defense and get the ball moving."

The top returning players from last season's team, which turned in an undefeated regular season and topped South Adams and Blackford in the regional and Muncie Central and Anderson in the regional, are seniors Brad Horn and Patrick Johnson.

Noting that he plans on using a 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 set, Bailey said Horn will be his lone man up front.

After scoring six times in his sophomore season, Horn led the Patriots in goals as a junior with 27. He scored on 30 percent of his shots and nearly 50 percent of his shots on goal while adding four assists.

Johnson will be the leader of the team in the midfield. He finished last season with 10 goals and 10 assists.

"Those two show it with just their on-field presence. They lead by example," said Bailey, who lost seniors Isaac Poole (23 goals, 11 assists), Trey Dunn (10 goals, 14 assists) and foreign exchange student Joe Rasmussen (nine assists) from last season. "Patrick, there is nobody on this team who works any harder than he does. ... Brad is so field-smart and he understands (the game) so well."

The only other returning player who saw action in all 20 games last season is senior Jeremiah Cotherman (one goal, four assists). He will start at one of the midfield wing positions with freshman Alex Dunn, Trey's brother, on the opposite side. Ben Brandt will join Johnson in the middle.

Garrett Krieg, who saw increased action during the 2008 tournament run, will be the defensive sweeper, with Dillon Ainsworth set to start at the stopper position. Colton Bartlett, a junior, will also be on the defensive back line, and "then I get young," said Bailey.

"We're going to be young ... young with some good senior players."

Freshman Brandon Poore will be first among the younger players who will fill in the remaining positions.

With the loss of Rasmussen, who spent his season with the Patriots directing the on-field traffic, the Patriots will need a new field-general to lead the defense. Senior goalie Adam Daniels will step into that role of communicating with the back line and making sure everyone is where they need to be.

Daniels returns after recording 70 saves last season and allowing just 1.25 goals per game.

"The big thing being that inexperienced is learning to talk to each other," said Bailey, adding that taking advantage of his team's speed along the back line will be another key for his team.

"We're in great physical shape. We're very quick with our feet. ... If we get our skills up with our speed we're going to be a good team.

"We're going to play quicker. We're going to be a much faster team than we were last year (across the back). ... It's going to take a lot of hard work."

Despite the team's overall inexperience, Bailey and the Patriots are keeping the goals high. They're shooting for another winning season and repeat titles in the Olympic Athletic Conference and the sectional.

"Hopefully as the season goes on we'll get stronger and stronger once they get more game experience," said Bailey. "Hopefully we can just learn as we go, gel as a team and have a good season again."[[In-content Ad]]