Soccer struggles

The Patriot boys soccer team was at the wrong end of a lopsided score Tuesday, dropping a 9-2 decision to the visiting New Castle Trojans.
New Castle (2-2) scored just 31 seconds into the contest, and added four more goals in the first half before the Patriots broke the shutout in the 34th minute.
“We’re in struggling times right now,” said JCHS coach Alan Bailey, whose team fell to 0-3-1 on the season. “We just can’t get ourselves figured out. We have to work our way through, that’s what I told our boys. We’ve got to get ourselves figured out and straightened out pretty fast.”
New Castle’s Tyler Broyles put the Trojans on the board in the first minute after stealing the opening kick at midfield, cutting through the Patriot defense and depositing a shot past goalkeeper Zach Chaney.
He added the second of his four goals less than 90 seconds later to give the Trojans a quick 2-0 advantage.
“Tyler is usually our assist guy,” said New Castle coach Tyron Rainer. “To see him tucking them in today was really good.”
Garrett Marsh put the Trojans up 3-0 on an assist from Broyles in the 12th minute. On a corner kick seven minutes later, Jay County botched a clearing attempt and the ball bounced past Chaney for an own goal.
The Trojans scored one more goal before Jared Schlosser put the Patriots on the board.
In the 34th minute, Trevor Moeller’s free kick near midfield deflected between Jason Schlosser and the New Castle defense, eventually finding Jared Schlosser at the top of the 18-yard box. He dribbled the ball toward the goal and put his shot past diving goalkeeper Sam Thompson and into the right side of the net.
It was Jared Schlosser’s third goal of the season, and he tallied his fourth 25 minutes into the second half.
Luke Rowles took the ball up the right side of the field and into the corner before sending a right-footed cross to the middle where Schlosser was camped. He stopped the pass with his left foot, switched feet and buried a shot into the netting, cutting the deficit to 5-2.
“We need more of that out of him,” said Bailey of the senior. “I told him he’s capable of (scoring). He’s just got to take the shots. He doesn’t take the shots sometimes but I told him he’s never going to get yelled at by me for taking a shot.
“Keep trying hard and keep playing hard.”
Schlosser had to play hard, as he was one of the few varsity players on the field. Gavin Lopez and Colton Compton did not play because of leg injuries, and Nathan Heitkamp and Alex Abbott did not play for disciplinary reasons.
In the absence of the Patriots’ key contributors, Bailey said Angel Perez, Rowles and Moeller stepped up.
“Trevor played well,” he said of the sophomore defender. “I just wish he had more support in front of him, which he didn’t get any tonight.
“Perez stepped up and did a nice job in the midfield. He cramped up there in the end, but his touches were better tonight and (he) was better defensively.”
Rowles, who is normally a defensive player, wanted to play on the wing so Bailey made the switch.
“He did a nice job out there,” Bailey said. “He covered the whole field the whole game. I couldn’t have asked for more.”
But despite Perez, Moeller and Rowles having good individual games, the New Castle offense was able to use its speed and passing abilities to carve through the Patriots to score four more goals in the final 12 minutes of the contest.
Broyles launched a shot from just inside midfield over a drawn out Chaney to complete his hat trick with 11:35 left in the game, and added another four minutes later on a pass from Landon Malott after he thwarted a clearing attempt by the Patriot defense.
“One thing we had been struggling with is possession in the midfield,” Rainer said. “We were giving it up so we changed our formation today to load up the middle of the field.”
And it worked, as the Trojans’ midfield then took advantage of the inexperience of Jay County.
“We had some JV kids that have no varsity experience,” Bailey said.