Bearcats win on Jay County's new home turf (08/16/06)

It wasn't exactly the way the Patriots hoped to debut on their new field.

The opening game of the year was a struggle for the Jay County boys soccer team as it played for the first time on its new turf behind the baseball field. The Muncie Central Bearcats dominated the ball for a good portion of the contest, walking away with a 2-0 victory in the season opener for both teams.

"We were soft," said JCHS coach Alan Bailey. "We didn't play the aggressive type of soccer that I normally expect the guys to play. We're a much better team than that. This is not what we expected."

The Patriot girls will get a chance to christen the new field with a victory when they open the home portion of their schedule Saturday against Huntington North at 10 a.m. Their first game is at Heritage Thursday.

Jay County's boys had few scoring chances throughout the game, but still played to a scoreless tie in the first half. However, when they missed a golden opportunity in the second half, the Bearcats took advantage.

Muncie Central was called for a foul in the goal box 15-minutes, 30 seconds into the second half, giving the Patriots a penalty kick. Bailey called on senior Luke McClung - he had six goals last season - for the opportunity, but his ground-ball shot went almost directly to Bearcat goalie Josh Taulbee.

Taulbee dropped to the ground just to his left and covered the shot to preserve a scoreless tie.

"I'd have been happy with left, right or over the top," said Bailey. "You don't expect it right at him. That's soccer. I know he'd like to have that one back."

Given new life, Muncie Central was able to take advantage.

The Bearcats broke the scoreless tie about 10 minutes later when Derek Terry pushed the ball forward to Silas Stange. The junior foreign exchange student's shot was saved by Jay County goalie Derek Mills, but he couldn't hold on to the ball. It skipped toward Muncie Central senior Greg Lyon, who easily put it into the back of the net.

Terry had seemed finished for the night earlier in the second half when he was involved in a collision and then carried off the field by a pair of Bearcat coaches. But he returned and started the push toward his team's first goal.

"He put a spark on it," said Muncie Central coach Isidro Alvarado, noting his intention to keep the junior out because of the injury. "He said, 'Coach, I need to go in.'"

Stange and Lyon posted the second Muncie Central goal without Terry's help.

With Jay County working to try to tie the game, Stange took control just behind midfield and worked through the middle of the Patriot defense.

He got within shooting range, but instead passed to Lyon, who shot off the left post and into the back-right corner of the goal to effectively put the game away.

"We got some unlucky shots, but we finally put some in," said Alvarado, whose team shot more than 20 times in the contest. "The percentage was not very good, but we got it.

"I was nervous. We had so many shots, but we could not finish."

Alvarado said he talked to his team at halftime about being smarter and slightly more conservative with the ball when they got it. He wanted them to spread out and pass the ball, and the efforts eventually resulted in the pair of late goals.

As for the Patriots, Bailey said his team just gave Muncie Central too many looks and allowed the visitors to gain control of the ball far too often in the midfield area.

"Your percentages aren't with you (when you give up that many shots)," said Bailey. "We overplayed a lot of balls that we should have had."[[In-content Ad]]