Vikings blast Patriots, 9-2

Two days after exploding for 12 goals against South Adams, the Jay County girls soccer team wasn’t able to put together much offense.
On the other hand, the Vikings created, and converted, plenty of scoring chances.
Huntington North scored seven goals in the first half Monday on its way to a 9-2 thrashing of the host Patriots.
“We focused a lot this season about possessing the ball, doing good things with the ball and finishing well,” said HNHS coach Jeremy Steele. “I think we did a good job with that. I was pleased.”
Huntington North forwards Bailey Martin and Hannah Tillett combined to score five goals — Martin had a hat trick in the first half — by slicing through Jay County’s midfield and defense, using one-touch passes and give-and-go runs to produce scoring opportunities.
Martin gave the Vikings (8-2) a 1-0 lead nearly five minutes into the game. Her teammate Corinne Tester scored at the 10-minute mark before Jay County’s Gabbie Mann tallied her first of two goals for the Patriots (3-4).
It was the fourth multi-goal game for the Patriot junior.
After Mann’s 13th goal of the season — she scored her 14th with 12:10 left in the half on a left-footed rocket from about 25-yards out — Martin took a pass from Tillett into the left side of the penalty box beat a diving Lilly Rogers for her second goal of the game. She added her third with 4:17 remaining in the half, giving the Vikings a 6-2 advantage.
Rogers, Jay County’s sophomore goalkeeper, got plenty of action on the evening, making 21 saves.
“We’ve worked hard on making good runs, creating space for each other and playing quickly,” Steele said. “Bailey (Martin) is incredibly fast. When you find her space out front, she’s tough to keep up with. She has a good finishing touch.”
Jay County spent the majority of the game in its defensive zone, which was the complete opposite of its dominating conference win Saturday.
JCHS coach Giles Laux said he had a good feeling about the game during pre-game warm-ups. The first-year coach said the girls had a pep in their step, but once the opening whistle sounded that energy was nowhere to be found.
“We were sluggish,” Laux said. “We were dragging. We were walking. We were getting out-hustled to every ball.
“There was no chatter. We just played flat.”
When Jay County capitalized on the few mistakes by Huntington North, more often than not the Patriots gave the ball right back to the Vikings.
“Our passes weren’t hitting our teammates,” Laux said. “When it looked like we made a good stop, we kicked it right back to them.
“We were losing our fundamentals.”

Junior varsity
Aylin Montes scored the only goal of the contest as Jay County’s junior varsity team beat Huntington North 1-0.
Montes tallied her second goal of the season in the game’s first 10 minutes.
JCHS goalkeeper Emily Pogue and the rest of the Patriot defense kept the Vikings scoreless.