Continued dominance

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Battling heavy rains and the opposing defense, Kendra Muhlenkamp botched all three of her first-half scoring chances.

She shot directly at the goalkeeper instead of the open net.

The senior fixed the issue after intermission and helped continue her team’s dominance over conference opponents.

Muhlenkamp scored three goals in the second half on Thursday as the Jay County High School girls soccer team beat the visiting Heritage Patriots 5-1.

“The first half I kept shooting right at the goalie,” said Muhlenkamp, who had five hat tricks and seven multi-goal games last season. “I was getting down on myself. Then the second half I just wanted to have fun. I feel like the passes were there.”

Jay County, which is three-time defending Allen County Athletic Conference champion, pushed its winning streak against ACAC rivals to 11 games, dating back to 2014.

“ACAC is important,” said JCHS coach Giles Laux, whose team is now 1-1 (1-0 ACAC). “They don’t want to be the one to lose (the championship). Dug down deep where people don’t go and found what they needed to win.”

Muhlenkamp broke a 1-1 tie in the 60th minute as she took a through pass from defenseman Alison Jobe to the left side of the Heritage defense. She continued to the left side of the field and put a shot past Stephanie Frecker to put the host Patriots ahead 2-1.

Less than 10 minutes later, Muhlenkamp notched her second tally as she buried a loose ball on a play that was started by Karlie Bullard deep in the right corner of the field.

Bullard made a quick move to beat Megan Saalfrank, then passed toward the goal. Frecker came out to play the ball but wasn’t able to corral it, and Muhlenkamp put a right-footer into the net.

The lead ballooned to 4-1 just 30 seconds later as Bullard scored her first goal of the year on nearly the same type of play as Muhlenkamp’s second goal.

Then with 3:07 remaining on the clock, Muhlenkamp finished off Heritage (1-1, 0-1 ACAC) and the hat trick. She again dribbled the ball on the left side of the field near her team’s bench. Moving toward Frecker, she placed a right-footer from about 10 yards out into the short side of the net.

“I feel like that was my move last year,” she said.

The sky opened during warmups and dumped rain, causing an already wet playing field to get overly saturated. It took both squads a little bit to adjust to the playing conditions.

But it was the host team that adjusted the quickest, scoring first as Payton McCoy beat Frecker in the 24th minute for her first goal of the season and second of her career.

Jay County’s lead held until Molly Gibson netted the equalizer less than 10 minutes into the second half. The Heritage junior weaved her way through the middle of the JCHS defense and took a shot near the 18-yard box that went over the outstretched arms of Shelby Caldwell.

“I feel like we weren’t panicked, but we were scared,” Muhlenkamp said. “This could come down to who is the ACAC champ or not. I feel like we all got our act together and played like we should have the whole game.”