Patriots bruise way to shutout

For 80 minutes, the Patriots were at a disadvantage.

Mostly shorter and smaller than their Delta counterparts, they got pushed around the pitch.

But after 80 minutes of play, they had the advantage where it mattered — the scoreboard.

Jay County High School’s boys soccer team scored two second-half goals to beat sectional rival Delta Eagles 2-0 Thursday in a physical contest at JCHS.

“It’s a short season so far, only four games, but (it was) by far the best game we’ve played,” said JCHS coach Brad Horn, whose team moves to 2-2 after its 2-1 win on Tuesday against New Castle. “Best competition we’ve played.

“Hats off to Delta. They played a good, physical game. My kids were complaining the whole time, they are not used to that physicality.”

Mostly on defense for a majority of the first half and being dominated in terms of scoring chances as well, Jay County made the most of the few opportunities it had after intermission.

The first, a Gio Perod shot, sailed wide right past the net and Delta keeper Evan Shipley in the 46th minute.

Moments later, after the Eagles (0-2) had taken the ball the other way, Jay County’s defense got possession and kicked to the middle of the field. Cristian Marentes, a JCHS junior, received the ball and found himself alone with a ton of space on the right side of the pitch about 35 yards away from the goal.

He settled the bouncing ball. Knowing he had some time, he glanced up to see Shipley a little too far away from the 6-yard goalie box. Marentes booted a right-footer toward the goal, sending Shipley scrambling to get back. The tall, lanky goalkeeper jumped and extended his left arm, getting a hand on the ball but not quite enough to alter its trajectory toward the goal.

Just as the clock passed into the 47th minute, Jay County had a one-goal lead.

“Something like that where they give him that much time, that’s like a free kick,” Horn said. “He was given all the time in the world.

“That’s just muscle memory. He just knows what he has to do to put the ball where it needs to be.”

Delta upped its offensive pressure from there in hopes of tying the score. Jay County sagged back defensively a little bit anticipating those chances, but the Eagles were unable to convert any of them.

In the final half hour of the game, Delta was awarded four of its nine corner kicks, but each time JCHS keeper Ian Ruiz either caught the corner and prevented an Eagle shot or the Patriot defense swarmed the box and prevented anything from getting through to Ruiz.

“Hats off to Ian Ruiz,” Horn said. The junior made a season-high eight saves. “That is the best game I’ve seen him play in his three years here. Every corner kick he was demanding the ball. Any little save we needed him to make he did. He played an outstanding game.”

Still getting pushed around with the lead, the Patriots didn’t allow the Eagles to net the equalizer.

Instead, one of the few chances Jay County got down the stretch padded the lead and relieved the Delta pressure.

With the ball on the left side of the pitch just inside midfield, Marentes booted a centering through pass up to Perod. The JCHS senior forward chased it down and tapped it toward the goal as Shipley was again slightly out of position. Delta’s Dillion Tuttle desperately tried to kick it out before it crossed the goal line but to no avail.

“That clock moves so slow,” Horn said of how the Patriots’ first goal changed the complexion of the game. “Once Cristian made a nice pass to Gio and Gio finished that it took (the pressure) off.”