Out Mann(ed)

The Patriots and Knights are very similar in some ways and different in others.

One way the two teams are similar is how they both have a dynamic scorer that can range from the midfield to the goal to drive the offense.

One of the bigger differences is how the Knights were able to stop the Patriots’ scorer from controlling the game, while the Patriots couldn’t slow down the Knights’ striker.

Grace Mann controlled the offense as the Jay County High School girls soccer team fell to the Norwell Knights on Thursday in a 4-0 defeat, the biggest of the season.

“When we play a team like Norwell, the experience just shines,” said JCHS coach Kendra Muhlenkamp. “We’re probably around a third of the way through the regular season and definitely not where we want to be at the end. But five games in, I’m OK with their progress.”

Through the first five contests of the season, Aixa Lopez has led the Patriots (4-2) with six goals and two assists. The rest of the team has only combined for five goals and two assists.

Norwell’s coach Dan Batdorff was familiar with Lopez’s game due to the travel soccer scene and was looking to shut her down. He swapped a pair of defensive midfielders – in the first half Addison Parsons guarded Lopez, while Hallie Smith took over in the second – who constantly marked her to prevent her from getting the ball with space to drive down the field.

“We told our defensive mids at halftime to watch No. 9 and we need to make sure she’s marked,” Batdorff said. “They did a really good job that second half. I’m familiar with Aixa, she was a great club player. So I’m familiar with how strong she could be on the ball and when she gets free how much of a striker she can be. We definitely came in to stop her.”

While the Knights (2-4) kept a heavy patrol on Aixa, the rest of the Patriots struggled to pass the ball cleanly, allowing position to flip back and forth between the two teams.

Those struggles led to a pair of late goals for Norwell.

The first one came when defender Ariel Beiswanger was trying to track down a pass into the backfield that Mann beat her to. The NHS senior then stopped on a dime and put the ball into the right half of the goal past Maleah Parsons with 13 minutes, 25 seconds, remaining. The second goal came when Mann ran up from behind and pickpocketed Tessa Frazee as she received a pass. Mann then drove the rest of the field to put the ball in the bottom right corner at 7:49.

“What beat us tonight was Norwell’s ability to go first to the ball,” Muhlenkamp said. “I tell my players, you’re not passing to your teammate, you’re passing to an area so that you’re teammate can get there. If you pass it to your teammate, the defender’s going to take it.

“That’s a concept where we’re still trying to get better.”

Mann wasn’t just scoring off of turnovers, but also found ways to create as well. She scored the only goal of the first half at the 13:11 mark when Aubrey Meyer had a quick throw in and she shot the ball from the left side to the lower right corner past an outstretched Parsons’ dive.

In the second half, Mann first generated some offense by dancing around several Patriots to get a clean look at the net from the right side. Parsons managed to get her hands on the ball for one of her 10 saves, but Ryleigh Huffman came crashing in from the middle for the rebound goal to go up 2-0 with 27:39.

Less than 50 seconds after the score, the Patriots had one of their best looks at the goal but came up just short. Lopez found herself with the ball just across the midline, but dished it to a leaking Raylin Hummer before Smith could make the stop. Hummer then found London Lloyd streaking up the middle for a one-on-one with NHS goalkeeper Abby Wagner. With one attempt, Lloyd shot the ball to the lower right corner of the goal, but Wagner just managed to get her hands on the ball for the save.

“That all goes on Abby’s shoulders,” Batdorff said. “She does a phenomenal job preparing for the game and it showed today. She was able to get a hand on there and react. It was a great shot and it kept them from scoring.”

JCHS didn’t have an abundance of scoring opportunities. The Patriots only took eight shots on the goal, only five of which came inside of the box.

Jay County’s next opportunity to bounce back will come on Tuesday when they travel to Wapahani. Muhlenkamp is hoping the girls take this loss as motivation moving forward.

“At the end when I brought all the girls that played in the varsity game, I asked them what their thoughts were and how they feel,” Muhlenkamp said. “A couple of them said we played terrible and didn’t play good at all.

“The thing is, we didn’t play that bad, we just weren’t able to come together and we let little moments dictate the whole game.”