Jay wins OAC

Coming off of an undefeated season, even one loss may seem like a let-down. But the Patriots are in the midst of another succesful year, and they marked it with a championship Monday.

With a 6-0 victory over the visiting Muncie Southside Rebels, the Jay County High School boys soccer team secured back-to-back Olympic Athletic Conference titles.

The Patriots finished 3-0 in the OAC, winning their games by a combined score of 13-1. The lone goal came after they had cleared the bench Saturday against Anderson Highland.

"Conference is huge. That's always our first goal," said JCHS coach Alan Bailey, whose team has achieved its second consecutive double-digit win season at 10-4. "Any time you can win conference ... that's something to be proud of.

"They came out and played hard right off the bat. That's what we needed to do, that's what we wanted to do.

"The kids are playing good soccer right now."

Senior Brad Horn keyed the JCHS scoring onslaught, but in a different style than usual. He did extend his school record with his 30th goal of the season off passes from Patrick Johnson and Brandon Poore, but he made his impact by assisting on four of the other five goals.

Horn could have scored the opening goal of the game as he outmaneuvered Jeff Longworth on the left side and dribbled in uncontested toward the goal. Instead he tapped a pass to Johnson, who easily finished off the score with less than two minutes off the clock.

The score by Horn made it 2-0 at halftime before he and Johnson connected again just 27 seconds after the break.

Johnson pushed up the field after the kickoff and passed to Horn inside the 18-yard box. Horn stepped over the ball and then used his heel to tap it back to Johnson, who floated a shot through the gusting wind and over goalie Keith Thrasher.

The third assist of the night for Horn came as he hit a header off of a corner kick by Ben Brandt. Colton Bartlett was on the spot to deflect the header into the net to put JCHS up 4-0 with 33:24 to play.

Horn nearly had his second goal of the night with 11:55 remaining when he worked past Linh Vu on the left side and sent the ball across the front of the goal.

Dennis Shelton of Southside inadvertently deflected the ball into the net, and Dillon Ainsworth was credited with the goal as the player closest to the action.

"Since he's our No. 1 go-to guy (he has opportunities)," said Bailey of Horn. "Tonight he came out with the mindset that he was going to look for his teammates. He did a nice job."

The last score of the game came from the least likely Patriot, goalie Adam Daniels.

Carlos Esquivel took over goalie duties with about 15 minutes to play, allowing Daniels to get into the game on the offensive side of the field. When a Garrett Krieg shot from the right side was deflected, Daniels kicked it just inside the left post for his first goal of the season.

Bailey said he was happy to see his team spread out the scoring with five different players getting on the board.

"This was an opportunity for them," he said. "They were getting to the right spots and getting the crashes when they could.

"It's a confidence builder for (Johnson)," Bailey added of the senior, whose shots recently have had a tendency of finding the posts and the crossbar. "He needed that. If he can get those, he'll get better and better and better."

Jay County kept the ball on its offense end for most of the game, totalling 12 shots on goal. Southside finished with just two shots as Daniels and Esquivel each recorded one save.

"Our backs are really picking it up now," said Bailey, complimenting the defense on its fourth shutout of the year. "They're really starting to look good. Communication was a big (weakness) in the beginning. Now they're really talking. You always hear them yelling to each other."[[In-content Ad]]