Weather forces tie

It was frustrating enough for the Patriots and Bearcats to have to sit through a nearly two-hour lightning delay.
As play resumed and then was eventually stopped because of more lightning, the situation was even more maddening for the two coaches.
The Jay County and Muncie Central boys soccer teams played to a 3-3 tie Tuesday night before the game was halted in the 59th minute.
“We were trending upward in the last 30 or 40 minutes,” said Muncie Central coach Shea Hill, whose team had scored the equalizer in the 52nd minute. “I really wish we would have been able to play the last 20.”
After the Bearcats (0-0-1) tied the score at three on Chase Clasby’s second goal of the game, Hill was yelling at his team from the sideline to get another goal in the next five minutes.
Muncie Central answered, putting together two more chances in as many minutes.
Clasby took the ball up the right side of the field in the 53rd minute and was crashing hard toward Jay County goalkeeper Zach Chaney. The sophomore keeper left the goalie box and tackled the ball away from Clasby to prevent him from completing a hat trick.
Muncie Central had another opportunity a minute later on a corner kick, but the lengthy Chaney jumped up to snag the ball before the Bearcats could get a shot on net.
The Patriots (0-0-1) had a couple opportunities of their own to retake the lead but couldn’t convert them.
Jared Schlosser, who had scored the Patriots’ second goal with less than two minutes remaining in the first half, headed a ball over the net on a corner kick from Alex Abbott. Two minutes later Abbott had a free kick but his attempt went into the Bearcats wall in front of goalkeeper Tyler Wood and the ball deflected out of bounds.
The game was ended shortly thereafter.
Throughout the match, neither Jay County nor newly-consolidated Muncie Central were able to hang on to the momentum throughout the match.
The Bearcats opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Devin McNabb headed a ball over Chaney on a cross from Tri Nguyen. Abbott tied the score with the first of his two goals six minutes later, and the game was halted when a storm cell began to produce lightning.
Officials sent the two teams off the field, and nearly an hour later — soccer cannot resume until 30 minutes have passed since the last sight of lightning — the teams returned to the field only to be sent away again. The game was delayed for a total of one hour, 49 minutes.
Just three minutes after play resumed, Clasby netted his first goal when McNabb’s cross attempt rattled around in front of Chaney and Clasby followed it in to give his team the lead.
“McNabb and Clasby play off each other because they’re willing to run, change sides and lay a pass off,” Hill said of his junior forwards. “When you have guys that are willing to do that you have a chance to score a lot of goals.”
Then, in the final four minutes of the half, the Patriots tied the game for the second time and then took the lead two minutes later.
Abbott took the ball up the left side of the field and sent a cross into the box, where it ricocheted between Schlosser and the Bearcat defense. Muncie Central wasn’t able to clear the ball out of the box and Schlosser got loose inside 8 yards, reached his foot out and lifted the ball over Wood into the right side of the net in the 36th minute.
With time winding down in the half, Jay County senior Jalen Ryder passed up to Schlosser in the right side of the 18-yard box. Schlosser then crossed to Colton Compton at the top of the 6-yard box.
Compton wasn’t able to get off a clear shot as two Bearcat defenders closed in on him. A Bearcat deflected the ball away from Compton to Abbott, who trailed the play and rifled the ball into a wide-open right side of the net.
“He’s Mr. Intensity,” Bailey said of Abbott, who opened the season with a multi-goal game for the second straight year. “Everything tries to work through him. He’s being that senior leader (I’ve) needed the last few years.
“He’s talking with the boys a lot and he’s helping me coach the team like he’s capable of doing.”
Hill said the Patriot senior is one of the better players his team will see this season.
“Abbott is going to take everything that you give him, and you see he’s all over the field,” Hill said. “You never know when he’s going to pop up on the ball. He’s going to be all over the place.”
While Jay County allowed three goals, Bailey said the Bearcats could have easily had more than what the scoreboard displayed.
“Our defense has to get tightened up going into conference right away,” he said. “If we can get the kids to believe in themselves (and) we’re confident with the ball, it’s going to be a good team but we just have to get ourselves settled in.”
Jay County opens Allen County Athletic Conference play at Heritage on Thursday.