Trojans thrash JC

The second home game of the season for the Patriots stood in stark contrast to the first.
The New Castle Trojans scored a flurry of four goals in a span of less than eight minutes Tuesday and buried the Jay County High School boys soccer team 8-0.
“It was kind of like how we played up at (Heritage) the other night,” said JCHS coach Alan Bailey, whose team topped Muncie Central 7-2 in its season opener and then lost 5-2 to Heritage on Thursday. “They possessed the ball well and we just didn’t play at that level. We played scared. The biggest thing I think that hurt us tonight was that we didn’t talk. …
“Our passing was atrocious. …
“The passing game totally killed us. They had it and we had none.”
After struggling for the first few minutes against Jay County’s offsides trap, the Trojans (4-1) adjusted and took over the game.
Senior Tanner Dye tallied the first New Castle goal off of a corner kick by Jake Underwood at the 35-minute mark, and three more scores quickly followed. Underwood assisted on a score by Ryan Jones less than three minutes later, and Brad Broyles tallied two goals just 19 seconds apart in the 13th minute of the game.
Broyles completed his hat trick with 9:52 to play in the first half, and Pearson Burris scored to extend the Trojans’ lead to 6-0 at the intermission.
“They were playing a high offsides trap and I thought they were adjusting to the field well,” said New Castle coach Jacob White. “I think our guys figured out what they were trying to do, and once we figured that out we had a pretty successful evening.”
The teams played scoreless soccer for the first 36 minutes of the second half, with Jay County narrowly missing on consecutive shots by Alex Dunn, Alex Abbott and Colton McCombs between the 22- and 19-minute marks. But the Patriots were never able to break through and New Castle added late goals by Tim Welch and senior Zach Millikan, the team’s starting goalie, for the final margin.
Millikan also recorded five saves for the Trojans.
Abbott finished with three shots on goal for the Patriots, and Nathan Heitkamp, McCombs and Dunn each added two.
Kyle Dirksen started in the net and gave up four goals while recording three saves. Kevin Scott tended the goal for the final 67 minutes, making six saves and allowing four goals.
“Like I told the kids, we can’t get any lower than this, so hopefully we can build from this and get better,” said Bailey. “It was just a tough night.”[[In-content Ad]]