Sin ceases Jay's title hopes

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The host Patriots didn’t have the best foot control in the first half and were fortunate to go into halftime with a scoreless game.

Their shortcomings in the first 40 minutes caught up to them in the final 40.

Ha Sin scored a pair of second-half goals for the Heritage Patriots as the Jay County High School boys soccer team lost Monday, 2-1.

“It happened throughout the whole game — luckily they didn’t make any in the first half — but our touches were not very good today,” said JCHS coach Brad Horn. “The touches were not there from the defense to the midfield (and) forwards. We missed up front.

“They were just not good touches.”

The loss dropped Jay County to 7-4 on the season and 1-1 in Allen County Athletic Conference play. A win would have secured the program’s first ACAC championship and the first conference title since the 2009 team won the Olympic Athletic Conference.

(South Adams did not field a team this season, so the ACAC only had three schools competing.)

Thirteen minutes into the second half, Heritage junior forward Maung Chit Oo dribbled the ball down the right side of the field and passed in toward the center. Sin, also a junior, corralled the ball and put a right-footed shot from the left side of the 6-yard box into the right side of the net past JCHS goalkeeper Ian Ruiz.

It was the fourth goal of the season for Sin, who added his fifth in the 75th minute. Oo fired a shot that drilled the right side of the crossbar and the ball deflected to Sin, who dribbled quickly to get open space and rifled a right-footer to the lower left side of the goal.

“Just a great job getting some space right at the top of the (18-yard box) to be able to have some shots,” Heritage coach Joel Bunnell said. “The first goal was a great ball in from Maung Chit Oo. Second one found his foot too and scored.

“They’re just playing really well right now.”

The win put Heritage (5-3-2, 1-0 ACAC) in a prime spot to win the program’s fifth consecutive conference championship with a win Sept. 30 against Woodlan.

Jay County, which travels across the state line to play St. Marys Memorial on Thursday, was able to get shots in the first half despite not playing the ball particularly well.

Alex McFarland had a header go wide of the net in the sixth minute, and Gavin Muhlenkamp booted a ball in the 23rd minute from about 20 yards away that Heritage keeper Leroy Lepper saved.

In the 11th minute, Gio Perod had another header not make it to Lepper, and Muhlekamp had a couple attempts miss the frame as well.

Heritage had an array of opportunities too but didn’t convert either. Six shots toward Ruiz were off frame.

“We were hopeful (to score),” Bunnell said. “You never know. It’s a conference game. Jay County is a good team and we know we’re always in for a battle.

“We were hopefully it would come and were definitely glad that it did.”

Then after the first Heritage goal, Cristian Marentes had, at the time, his team’s best chance to score but he too missed the frame. Marentes got to a bouncing through ball and tapped it past Lepper as he came out to play it, and as Lepper dived back in an attempt to deflect a potential shot, Marentes boomed the ball over the crossbar.

Marentes was able to put Jay County on the board with three seconds remaining in the game on a penalty kick following a hand ball. He put his left-footed shot into the left side of the net.

But in the end the possession problems for Jay County had the conference title hopes slip away.

“Our first touch was not very good today,” Horn said. “Those days happen. It just wasn’t our day but those are something we have to work on and get better at.”