Tigers take round one

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The Patriots got the win against the Tigers during the regular season last year, but lost during the postseason.

A victory in the first meeting doesn’t guarantee a second.

The Patriots are hoping that theme stays true after Thursday’s result.

Jay County High School’s girls soccer team fell to sectional rival Yorktown 3-0 Thursday in the final home game of the regular season.

“No one instance is going to define our postseason play,” said JCHS coach Renae Laux, whose team dips to 7-4. “The only thing that will define our postseason play is while we’re playing it.”

Yorktown coach Tim Ashton, whose squad lost 5-2 at home to the Patriots during the 2018 regular season before getting revenge, 8-4, in the sectional semifinal, understands the outcome of Thursday’s contest does not dictate what should happen if they meet again in the tournament.

“Sectional is just a different time,” he said. “We lost last year (in the regular season) and turned around and beat them (at sectional). Doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Got to show up and play both games.”

Yorktown (8-3-1), which has now won three in a row — the Tigers scored an 8-2 win against Marion and a 10-0 thrashing of Wapahani — struck first Thursday when junior Lea Alexander scored on a booming kick from about 25 yards away on the right side of the field. Her goal, which at the time was her team-leading 22nd of the season, scooted into the right side of the net and stood as the only tally at halftime.

Alexander, who had been battling with teammate Elizabeth Reece to be the Tigers’ leading scorer, held that honor until the 50th minute when Reece got a goal to pull even with her classmate. Reece had the ball on the left side of the 18-yard box and put a left-footed shot into the top of the goal over the reach of JCHS goalkeeper Tricia Ison.

Despite Alexander’s goal in the first half, Ashton was more proud of the way his team in played in the second half.

“We struggled settling a little bit,” he said. “The ground is hard today so it made it difficult. I think we adjusted the second half a little better.

“We did OK. We moved the ball decent. I liked it, but the little things were hard today.”

In spite of the ball bouncing in odd ways because of the uneven grass and hard playing surface, the Tigers controlled possession for most of the game. Jay County’s offensive chances were limited mostly because it had a hard time getting possession in the first place.

Jay County’s two best chances to score came in the first half but they were both turned away by Tiger keeper Carley Culberson.

Payton McCoy got the ball deep in the YHS defensive zone and took a close-range shot that Culberson deflected away in the 13th minute. A short six minutes later, Eliza Bader ripped in a corner kick from the left side that Culberson caught in mid-air to keep the ball from crossing the line before her body slammed into the goal post.

Culberson made six saves in the Tigers’ third shutout of the season.

“Keeper made a couple good saves early on,” Ashton said. “Defense played well.”

Chloe Mariotti scored in the 79th minute for the game’s final goal.

“I think just like any game there is room to learn, room for improvement,” Laux said. “Yorktown is a good team. They are a very good team. They are always competitive.”

Round one went to Yorktown. The teams will find out Sunday in the tournament pairings show if there will be a round two. Laux is hoping for it so last year’s theme can repeat.

“We’re going to learn, we’re going to move forward, make more adjustments and put forth the effort to do the best we can.”