Jay Co. begins with tie (08/22/03)

PORTLAND — Tie games are almost never satisfying. They’re even less so when your team let the win slip away.

Such was the case Thursday for the Jay County Patriot girls soccer team, which allowed a late goal to the Heritage Patriots to settle for a 1-1 tie in the season opener for both teams Thursday.

“I’m disappointed,” said Jay County coach Sue Rager. “I think we should’ve won that game. We definitely saw tonight what we need to work on.”

Jay County (0-0-1) didn’t get nearly as many scoring chances as Heritage, but seemed into control of the game in the second half. It had a 1-0 lead from a first-half goal by Jessica Heitkamp, and was staving off most of Heritage’s drives down the field before the injury bug hit.

First Angie Hilgeford went down with a wrist injury about midway through the half, and when Beth Siegrist took a shot to the head almost 10 minutes later Heritage capitalized. Marissa Scheuman took the ball away from freshman defender Sara Garringer near the top of the 18-yard box and blew by her toward the goal.

Nothing was left between Scheuman and the net except goalie Renae Laux, and the Heritage forward lifted a shot up into the left-hand corner of the net to tie the score. The goal came with 10:03 left on the clock as Scheuman finally converted on one of her game-high eight shots on goal.

Rager said she thought the loss of Siegrist’s experience on the defensive end was a key to Heritage breaking through for the tying score.

Lindsay Friddle had one good shot to try to take the lead with 6:26 to play, but it sailed wide left, and a trio of corner kicks with two minutes to play also produced no luck.

A long shot by the recovered Siegrist nearly skipped past Heritage goalie Kerry Minnich in the final minute before she made a stumbling save on the bouncing ball. Then Heritage put the pressure on, forcing Laux to make a lunging save as time expired.

Despite the final score, Heritage held a huge advantage in shots on goals, finishing with 15. Breanna Conrad followed Scheuman with three, and Leah Counterman and Kara Waslyk each added two.

Jay County had just six shots on goal, led by two each by Sarah Miller and Lindsay Friddle.

Rager said her team will need to work on its ball control to try to even that equation.

“We need to work on maintaining possession, and going to the bouncing balls,” she said. “Right now we’re having trouble reading the bounces.”

The best chance for Jay County to put a strangle-hold on the game came just over 10 minutes into the first half. Friddle drove up the middle and dropped a pass to Heitkamp on the left side, but she was tripped on her way to the goal.

The officials awarded a penalty kick, but Sarah Miller lifted the ball well over the top of the crossbar.

Heitkamp made up for it 20 minutes later when Jamie Bruggeman sent a cross in from the right side. Brittany Logue picked up the ball and attacked the net, before having the ball knocked away.

It landed at Heitkamp’s feet, and she pounded the ball past Minnich for the 1-0 lead.

The score marked the first varsity goal of the junior’s career.

“Considering the heat, they really ran hard tonight,” said Rager. “It was awful, probably the warmest game we’ve ever played.”

Jay County will host Connersville Tuesday in their first Olympic Athletic Conference battle Tuesday at 5 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]