Headed into the final

MARION — Like the night before, the Patriots got an early goal and had to hold on to a lead.

Unlike Tuesday, they weren’t able to do so.

But Hunter Shumaker put the Patriots in a spot they haven’t been in five years — the sectional final.

Shumaker headed a ball into the net for a go-ahead goal which proved to be the difference as the Jay County High School boys soccer team defeated the Burris Owls 2-1 Wednesday in the Class 2A Sectional 24 semifinal at Eastbrook’s Jeff Adamson Stadium.

“It’s nice,” said JCHS coach Brad Horn, whose team advances to the sectional final for the first time since 2015. “It’s been a while since we’ve made it past the first round of sectional.

“Feels good. They deserve it. The way they play they completely deserve it. Like I’ve said all along, toward the end of the year they always play their best soccer. By far, overall as a team, that game was our best game this year.”

Jay County (7-8) will meet the 13th-ranked Yorktown Tigers (13-2-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Tigers knocked off Delta 2-0 in the first semifinal Wednesday.

Cristian Marentes, who staked Jay County to the early lead by scoring just 55 seconds into the contest, had the ball deep in the right corner of the pitch in the Patriots’ attacking zone.

Using his stellar footwork, the junior weaved through four Burris defenders and dribbled the ball back toward the corner of the 18-yard box. Marentes sent a left-footed shot to the net and it curved around a Burris defender.

Hunter Shumaker, a senior, crashed the goal and headed the ball into the left side of the net past Burris keeper Ethan Doerner to break the 1-1 tie.

“Usually Cristian always sends it far bar so I was just trying to be there ASAP,” Shumaker said. “I seen a defender right in front of me. (The ball) curved around him and it just happened.”

Shumaker’s third tally of the season, with 13:47 remaining, sent the Patriot faithful into a frenzy.

“Amazing,” Shumaker said. “I don’t know, I can’t explain it.”

Horn credited Marentes, who leads the team with 13 goals, with his finesse at creating the opportunity in the first place.

“Cristian had beautiful footwork,” he said. “Got it crossed and Hunter was where he’s got to be.”

The Patriots were back on their heels once again, this time with a narrow lead as time was winding down. Bryce Karnes, who netted the equalizer for the Owls in the 65th minute, had a free kick in the 74th minute that got turned away by JCHS keeper Ian Ruiz.

Then with almost 90 seconds remaining, Karnes had another opportunity at the net on a free kick, but Ruiz came up with another stop, perhaps the biggest of his five saves.

“That last free kick was unbelievable,” Horn said. Karnes spun his shot around a three-member Patriot wall covering up the left side of the net.

“(Ruiz) stepped up to big moments all year,” Horn continued. “It’s not just that the ball comes to him, he just knows where to be.”

Jay County, which jumped on top of Blackford with a goal in the first six minutes of the quarterfinal Tuesday, had what seemed forever to go protecting the lead.

Against Burris, it had even longer to go thanks to Marentes’ effort. He beat a couple Owl defenders to a 50/50 ball that was rolling down the right side of the field. At the top of the 6-yard box, Marentes used his right foot to tap the ball over a diving Doerner.

From that point, Jay County was backed up on its heels as Burris dominated the chances for the remainder of the half. It seemed to be not so much a matter of if the Owls were going to score, but rather when.

Then nearing the midway point of the second half, Noah Bernot sent a long pass through the JCHS defense to Karnes, who beat Ruiz for his 25th goal of the season.

“Hats off to (Karnes) on their side,” Horn said. “You can just tell by the way he moves, the way he understands the game, at some point I knew he was going to have to get a goal. We were double-teaming him as much as we could. … That was just a good soccer player making a great soccer play.”

Jay County will have to avenge a 3-0 loss suffered when it hosted the Tigers during the regular season Aug. 29 in order to win the sectional title.

There’s no shortage of history between the Patriots and Tigers, either. The Tigers knocked the Patriots out of the tournament each year form 2015 to ’18 — a 4-3 victory in penalty kicks in the 2015 sectional final, a 2-1 win in the semifinal in 2016 and 1-0 triumphs in the quarterfinal the next two seasons.

“It’s going to take everything we have, honestly,” Shumaker said. “They are a really good team and we have to play our A-game if we want to beat them.”

Horn, however, is confident his team has what it takes to claim the sectional championship for the first time since 2014.

“We’re just going to have to keep playing the same way we’re playing right now,”?he said.