Tricked out

Wapahani’s Brandon Williams has averaged a hat trick in his team’s wins this year.
It looked as if he might be headed for another Tuesday, but Colton McCombs had other ideas.
McCombs scored twice in the second half for Jay County and celebrated senior night with a hat trick of his own to lead the Patriots to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Raiders.
“McCombs stepped up, hustled all over the field,” said JCHS coach Alan Bailey. “You could see that senior showmanship wanting to come through tonight. It was there. … He wanted it.
“He’s been playing like that the last few games. … That’s made a big difference for our team.”
Jay County (5-5) controlled the ball for most of the first half, but failed to slow down Williams on a couple of occasions leaving the game tied at 2-2 at the break. But after missing a shot over the top of the goal in the first five minutes of the second half, McCombs took over the game.
The senior striker got the ball on a breakaway toward the right post, worked to his left past the final two Raider defenders and fired a shot to the left side to give the Patriots the lead for good with 30:55 left to play. Less than four minutes later he got free again, beat Wapahani defender Justin Henson and drilled a shot to the right corner to complete his hat trick and make the score 4-2.
“The way we started, me and Alex Abbott,  we weren’t on the last defender,” said McCombs, who also scored for JCHS late in the first half off of a deflected shot by Abbott.
“We figured that out during halftime and we went out there and pretty much just stayed right on the last defender. And chip and runs got the job done.”
Jay County was mostly successful at shutting down Williams, who has 18 goals this season, in the second half after allowing him to get behind the defense several times in the first. He had the only strong scoring opportunity for the Raiders in the second half, but missed wide to the right at the 16:32 mark.
“We’ve got some other weapons, but he’s our primary offense,” said Wapahani coach Randy Bertram, whose team is now 3-6. “He has (three) hat tricks already this year. … Brandon is a quality player. There’s no doubt about it.”
The Patriots countered Williams’ speed and scoring prowess with a defensive change that helped turn the game.
“I ended up dropping back a sweeper because we were a little slow on the chip-and-runs,” said Bailey. “That made a difference.”
Alex Dunn sent several shots flying over the cross bar, including one at the 14:33 mark of the second half, before breaking through late in the game.
Luke Rowles controlled the ball off of a goal kick and passed to Zane Shreve, who sent the ball up to Dunn. The senior kept the shot on goal and it deflected off the hands of goalie Derrick Marvin and into the net for the final margin.
“He got that nice pass from Shreve,” said Bailey. “It was a beautiful pass. And the keeper wasn’t coming out on anything. He kept his head and knee over the ball and took a nice shot, and he got it.”
Abbott scored the first JCHS goal just over 11 minutes into the game and also had two assists. Shreve racked up three assists, and McCombs and Dunn each finished with four shots on goal.
Kevin Scott picked up the win in the net, making five saves as he shut out the Raiders over the final 65 minutes of the game.

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