Knights score late to beat Jay

Copyright 2018, The Commercial Review

All Rights Reserved

The Patriots had all the chances in the first half.

Just none of them went in.

On the rare occasion the defense got caught sleeping, the Knights took advantage.

Kade Zadylak scored with slightly more than two minutes left on the clock Thursday as the Norwell Knights handed the Jay County High School boys soccer team a 2-1 loss.

“We had very few mistakes on defense but the ones we did they capitalized,” said JCHS coach Brad Horn, whose team dips to 1-4 on the year while Norwell got its first victory of the season following six consecutive losses.

“Congrats to them, they played a great game,” Horn continued. “We just couldn’t finish.”

After falling behind 1-0 in the 60th minute and netting the equalizer in the 71st, Jay County had two more chances that were turned away by goalkeeper Lars Geisler and the Knights.

Moments later Matthew Paquette bumped heads with a Norwell player on a collision near the Knight bench. The official near the play didn’t whistle the ball dead as the Knights kept advantage. Zadylak corralled the free ball, dribbled up the field and put a shot past Jay County goalkeeper Ian Ruiz for the eventual game-winning goal.

“We gave up,” Horn said of his team’s performance late in the game.

As time wound down, the Patriots attempted to get more scoring opportunities but never got close to Geisler.

Despite holding an edge in scoring chances, Horn was disappointed with the way his team played overall.

“We came in overconfident thinking we were easily going to win because we beat a team (Woodlan) that beat them, but we came out and didn’t play the game that we know how to play,” he said. “We came out just thinking we were going to have an easy win.”

Norwell broke the scoreless game midway through the second half. On a free kick near the right side of the 18-yard box, Zadylak directed a low pass across the field instead of sending a shot toward the frame. A Knight player took a shot that hit the crossbar, and Korbyn Costello followed the play and buried the loose ball for the go-ahead goal.

Jay County, which has lost back-to-back games and travels to Blackford on Sept. 6, tied the game on a nearly identical play.

David Kohler sent a free kick toward the net and for a few brief moments a handful of Patriots, including Gio Perod, could not get a clear shot on goal. But from nearly 15 yards away, Cristian Merentes got to the loose ball and rifled a strike past Geisler for the equalizer.

“That is something we’re going to have to finish a lot more,” said Horn, whose team had plenty of opportunities close to the goal but failed to get clean shots. “You saw the whole game how many chances we had compared to theirs. We finished one goal, but we could have easily five or six (goals).

“Just sad to see how poor of an ability at finishing right now.”

Horn said one of the things his team can do to convert more of those opportunities is concentrate on them in practice, but the effort has been lacking and it’s translated into games.

“I have a few guys who care about the game who work hard all the time,” he said. “It comes down to practice and if we put our minds to it or not.

“We have the pieces to be a good team. We’re just not putting it together right now.”