Jay County holds off Yorktown

Speed kills. And Alex Abbott has plenty of it.
The senior’s quickness helped stake the Jay County High School boys soccer team to a 4-1 lead Saturday, and the Patriots held off the visiting Yorktown Tigers for a 4-3 victory to halt a four-game losing streak.
Abbott scored twice on breakaways and was fouled on another, leading to a free kick that resulted in a goal. He assisted on the other score for Jay County, which earned its last win 4-3 over South Adams on Sept. 13.
“Finally,” said JCHS coach Alan Bailey, whose team had lost its previous four games to Leo, Bellmont, Centerville and Marion by a combined score of 30-4. “We needed this one.
“We played as a team. We saw what we could attack and we were able to get the through balls to Abbott.
“We played hard. They wanted these guys as badly as anybody we’ve played this year.”
The Patriots (4-8-1) scored the game’s first three goals and extended their 3-1 halftime lead when Abbott outran the Yorktown defense. He chased down a through ball from Brent Englehardt between two Tigers and got behind them for a one-on-one with goalie Chris Reff.
Abbott tapped the ball to his left to get past Reff, just as he had on his second goal of the opening half, and then sent a shot into the open net for a 4-1 lead with 29:33 to play.
Yorktown (3-8) closed the gap to 4-2 on a 40-yard boot by Connor Mullins to the right corner and pulled to within one with 8:04 to play when Elijah Brand slammed home a centering pass from Mullins. However, the JCHS defense shut down the Tigers the rest of the way to preserve the one-goal win over the five-time defending sectional champions.
YHS coach Zach Rabenstein was encouraged about his team’s sectional chances despite the loss.
“I’m super pleased with how our guys came back,” he said, noting that starting goalie Josh Struble missed the game with a sprained ankle and is expected to be back for the tournament. “We haven’t been able to do that really all season, so it’s great to be able to find the back of the net finally.”
The teams would each have to win their Oct. 6 sectional semifinal games in order to meet again in the tournament this year. JCHS will take on Delta, a team it beat 4-3 Aug. 28, while Yorktown will play Muncie Central.
Jay County is 2-0-1 against sectional opponents, having tied Muncie Central 3-3 in the opening game of the season in a game that was called because of lighting with 20 minutes left to play.
“Sectional is wide open,” said Bailey. “We beat two out of the three and tied the third. I hope my kids think that they’re going to be the favorites and go out and play to win.”
The Patriots got on the board Saturday with two goals less than two minutes apart, the first after Abbott was fouled while making a run down the left side of the field. He took the ensuing free kick from about 20 yards out and put it in the upper right corner of the net past Reff.
At the 30:23 mark, Abbott sent a corner from the right side into the goal box. Reff leapt to try to grab the ball, but it sailed just out of his reach and sophomore Zach Chaney knocked a header just below the crossbar for a 2-0 lead.
“That was pretty,” said Bailey. “It wasn’t really a set play. We don’t normally put Chaney in those runs, but he stayed back and made that run. Abbott played a perfect ball right to his head.”
Abbott scored his second goal with 9:47 left in the first half when he chased down a Jared Schlosser chip and beat Reff to the ball. He tapped it to his left to get around Reff and then scored easily for a 3-0 lead.
Yorktown broke through for its first goal less than two minutes later.