Roughed up by the ’Riders

Brad Horn said last week the Patriots were going to have to be nearly perfect to compete with the Roughriders.

The Patriots were far from it Tuesday.

Jay County High School’s boys soccer team got outplayed in every facet of the game Tuesday in suffering a 9-1 loss to the St. Marys Memorial Roughriders.

“We need to come out ready to play each and every day,” said Horn, whose team has now lost three straight and falls to 2-5. “I kept telling (assistant coach Bobby Ruiz) we look like we were in mud. The person having the ball is moving all right but everyone else is kind of just standing and watching. As you can see that’s not going to lead to very successful soccer.

“Hats off to Memorial. They played a great game. They were running circles around us … We played poorly. We didn’t give them much of a game.”

With their fast, controlling style of play, it didn’t take long for St. Marys (1-1-1) to get on the board against Jay County.

Ryan Ibrahim found himself in the right place at the right time as he buried a secondary shot after JCHS goalkeeper Ian Ruiz stopped the first Roughrider attempt. The ball caromed to Ibrahim, who kicked it into the top of the net for a goal just 6:26 into the match.

A mere 46 seconds later, Preston Wilson gave the ’Riders the eventual game-winning goal when he headed a cross pass from the left side of the pitch into the short side of the net for the 2-0 tally.

Adam Tobin one-timed a Joey Vanderhorst pass for a goal in the 22nd minute, and in the 28th minute Andrew Ibrahim scored the first of his three goals on a rousing display of effort and hustle.

Spencer Trogdlon sent a long through pass up to Ibrahim on the left side. Ibrahim then dribbled past Ruiz, who attempted to play the ball. The touch past Ruiz was a little too strong, but Ibrahim raced to the ball and slid to tap it into the open net for the goal.

It was one of many moments in the game that left Horn nearly speechless.

“Any other game this season, any other time we’ve given up a goal, I haven’t been ‘wowed’ by anything,” he said. “It was more, we made a mistake and the other team capitalized.

“Many of the goals (tonight) … they were slicing through our defense right where they needed to. They had a lot more ‘wow’ goals than anything else I’ve seen this year.”

Tobin tallied his second goal less than two minutes into the second half — St. Marys led 4-0 at intermission — and almost four minutes later Trogdlon got on the board by following a Ruiz deflection off a Roughrider corner.

Andrew Ibrahim got his second mark in the 67th minute on a Ryan Ibrahim assist to make it 7-0.

Jay County broke the shutout three minutes later as Cristian Marentes beat St. Marys keeper Correy Nelson in a one-on-one situation following a Gavin Muhlenkamp through pass. Nelson tried to kick away Muhlenkamp’s pass, but Marentes deflected the ball toward the goal before chasing it down and putting a left-footed shot into the open goal.

Andrew Ibrahim completed his hat trick by heading a Quinn Holtzapple cross pass for the goal. Austin Hernstein completed the scoring for the Roughriders, getting the final tally of the day in the 76th minute.

“I don’t want my kids sitting there and watching, but hopefully they’re taking notes and seeing what needs to be done from watching them play,” said Horn, noting he feels the Patriots end the losing skid by getting back to playing together. “It’s not the loss that bothers me. It’s just the fact we played as poorly as we did when I know we can play much better.”

Jay County’s junior varsity team also lost, 7-0.