Jay pours offense on Heritage

The pressure was on the visitors from the get-go.

It took less than five minutes for the home team to get on the board.

They weren’t satisfied with just a one-goal lead.

Jay County High School’s girls soccer team continued its dominance over conference opponents as two players scored a pair of goals in a 5-0 victory Thursday against a young and depleted Heritage squad.

“Overall I thought the girls worked well together today,” said JCHS coach Renae Laux, whose team is defending five consecutive Allen County Athletic Conference championships and has not lost a conference match since 2014. “They had each other on their minds in the sense of wanting to make passes to one another.

“Not one person was worried about themselves. A lot of good team play.”

Case in point, sophomore Gabi Bilbrey. The midfielder intercepted a goal kick from Heritage’s Anna Lawson, weaved her way through the left side of the defense and tapped a right-footer past Lawson for the first goal in the fifth minute.

Her second goal in the 30th minute came in just about the same fashion, using her speed, agility and ball-handling skills to leave Heritage defenders kicking air on her way to give Jay County (2-0, 1-0 ACAC) a two-goal lead.

Then she passed off to others. With the ball deep in the Heritage defensive end, Bilbrey slid a pass to classmate Mara Bader, who then went to the right side of the net for a goal in the 33rd minute.

Bilbrey also assisted on Bader’s second goal of the night and team-leading third of the season in the 76th minute, which turned out to be the final tally of the night.

“Gabi is the type of kid that does not think selfishly,” Laux said. Bilbrey had 15 goals and eight assists — both led the team — as a freshman. “She thinks about her teammates. She wants others to succeed. With somebody else’s succeeds she feels that success for herself.

“That is why it is fun to coach Gabi and I’m sure that is why it is fun to be her teammate because she genuinely cares about her teammates.”

Laux also commended Bader, who was one of two Patriots to score in Monday’s season-opening 2-0 victory against Richmond, for being in the right position for passes and cross plays.

Bader’s second goal came on a Bilbrey pass that was intended for Averi Hatzell, but was slightly off the mark. Near the left side of the goal, Bader sent a shot to the right to break the temporary tie for the team’s most goals on the young season.

“I thought (Bader) did a lot better job as far as being in the right position as far as where the ball is,” Laux said.

Eliza Bader got her first goal of the season with 17 seconds to play in the first half, giving Jay County a 4-0 lead.

Jay County goalkeeper Tricia Ison only made four saves as she was not forced to work too much in the team’s home opener.

Heritage (1-2, 0-1 ACAC), which has played three games in four days, has just two returning starters from last year, and coach Dean Trainer said the squad has lost 23 seniors over the last two seasons. It had just four bench players against Jay County, and one of them was not in full uniform wearing an ankle brace. Heritage lost a starter midway through the second half because of injury as well.

Despite five goals and pushing the winning streak against conference opponents to 17 games — the last loss was a 7-1 setback to former member Leo on Sept. 9, 2014 — Laux said her team could have done a better job at communicating with one another, especially in the middle third of the pitch.

“It’s not something that comes naturally to everybody,” said Laux, whose team hosts the Burris Owls at 11 a.m. Saturday. “Some have to teach themselves how to do it. Those that don’t need to step up in situations like that.”