Bailey boosts Patriots in opening victory (08/20/03)

PORTLAND — Jay County played nearly the whole game on its offensive end of the field and still nearly blew the game. But, in the end, the Patriots were able to put a mark in the correct column.

They rallied with two late Trent Bailey goals after giving up a couple of silly ones for a 3-2 victory over the Monroe Central Golden Bears in Tuesday’s season opener.

“A ‘W’ is a ‘W,’” said coach Alan Bailey of his boys soccer team. “We’ve got a lot to work on. You don’t know that until you get in the game and see what happens.”

Jay County was lucky its goalie, Trent Bailey, was well rested. He spent most of the game sitting alone on the defensive end, with just two shots coming at him in the first 60-plus minutes.

But, one of those shots found its way into the net — while the entire defense and most of the opposing offense stood around watching — and tied the score at 1-1 about 15 minutes into the second half. When the Patriots hadn’t reclaimed the lead six minutes after the goal by Monroe Central’s Andrew Wolfe, coach Bailey brought his son out of the net.

The move seemed to backfire at first when the Golden Bears (0-1) jumped on top 2-1 when a long direct kick from Alan Smithson skidded right through freshman goalie Justin Budde’s hands. Instead, Bailey made the change pay off.

Just one minute after Jay County fell behind, Kyle Carpenter got control near the top of the 18-yard box on the left side. He dumped it in to Bailey, who used Central’s Josh Meer to shield the goalie as he slammed in the tying score.

Bailey’s fresh legs paid big dividends again eight minutes later.

The ball was entrenched on the Jay County end, but got chipped up past midfield. Bailey was the only Patriot near the ball, but outran several Golden Bear defenders to take control.

He dribbled toward the right post and put the game-winning goal in with a crossing shot inside the left upright. Bailey admitted he was bored in the goal box, and had plenty of gas left in his tank to give his team a lift when he was called upon.

“I think I came back in the game with a lot of energy, because I was in goal and wasn’t doing a lot,” said the junior, who converted on two of his five shots in the contest. “All they had to do was chip it up. Carp (Carpenter) gave me a nice assist.”

After staking his team to a 3-2 lead, Bailey dropped back to his goalie position, and his team seemed to feed off of his boost.

“The last five minutes was the best soccer we played all game,” said Alan Bailey, adding that he thought his team was a little sluggish in the first half. “We’ve got to do 80 minutes of that. They picked it up.”

Neither team gave itself a lot of great scoring opportunities in the first half, but Jay County was able to convert once for the 1-0 halftime lead.

About seven minutes into the game, Dave Johnston launched a crossing pass from the right side. Luke McClung took a shot, only to have it deflect back off the goalie.

But it was a good bounce, landing at the feet of Sergio Woo, who sailed it past the goalie’s head for the first varsity goal of his career.

The Patriots had several corner kicks in the half, and one more good shot by Johnston before settling for the one-goal lead at the intermission.

Jay County outshot the Golden Bears 34-3 in the game, but Monroe Central capitalized on a couple of mistakes to hold its brief lead.

“I think the potential is there,” said first-year coach Rob Weller. “I think the mental part — since they haven’t won much in past years — is skeptical. They don’t know their capabilities, and that’s something we need to find.

“We’ve got to get rid of a lot of the silly mistakes.”

David Skillman had the only Golden Bear shot which did not result in a score. Johnston took seven shots for the Patriots, and Carpenter had six.

Jay County (1-0) will face a much stiffer test at New Castle Tuesday. Trent Bailey said he thinks his team’s aggressiveness will play a big part in that game, and the rest of the season.

“We have to win more balls — off of goal kicks, punts and stuff like that,” he said. “They won a lot of those. We can’t play around with the ball in our goal box either. That’s how they’re first goal was scored.”[[In-content Ad]]