Johnston scores pair in shutout of Bruins (09/12/03)

PORTLAND — It’s normally a soccer field. But, the Patriots turned their home turf into a shooting gallery Thursday.

The Jay County boys soccer team took 35 shots — 18 on goal — near four times as many as Blackford in a 2-0 victory over the Bruins.

“Our defense did a good job tonight,” said Blackford coach Tim Schortgen, who also praised goalie Matt Ramseyer for keeping the score down despite the Patriots’ shooting barrage. “We just have to get some offense. We’ve been shut out in five games.”

The Bruins (1-5-1) survived all 17 of Kyle Carpenter’s team-high total shots, but were hurt by his passing.

After Jay County (7-1) had missed on a variety of shots in the first 20 minutes of the contest it finally cashed in.

Carpenter took control of the ball on the left side of the 18-yard box, and sent a crossing pass toward the right post. As Ramseyer started toward the corner of the goal, Dave Johnston redirected the pass into the left corner of the net for a 1-0 Patriot lead.

Jay County got a variety of solid scoring opportunities over the next 40 minutes, but again couldn’t convert.

Ramseyer made a phenomenal diving save on a shot by Carpenter with 12 minutes left in the first half, and also knocked away an attempt by Scott “Scooter” Bruggeman after a give-and-go with Carpenter with four minutes to go.

A variety of other shots went wide left, wide right and mostly over the top until Johnston struck again to give the Patriots as comfortable cushion. Blackford was called for tripping in the goal box with 15 minutes to play, and Jay County coach Alan Bailey called on the senior to take the penalty kick.

Johnston responded with a perfect shot just out of Ramseyer’s reach as he went diving to his left.

Johnston converted on two of his six shots as he finished behind Carpenter in shots on goal. The Bruins took just nine shots in the contest.

“That’s senior leadership,” said Bailey. “That’s always been where he’s gotten a lot of his shots at — trash balls in front of the goal. He hustled the whole game.”

Johnston’s penalty-kick score combined with a big Blackford miss minutes earlier served to deflate the Bruin squad.

Blackford had a chance to tie the game at the 22:05 mark of the second half when Trent Bailey stepped out of the goal box to try to compensate for a defensive miss. The Bruins got the ball around him and had a shot on the open goal, but Justin Schortgen missed high and wide to the left.

Tim Schortgen agreed the play could have been a turning point in the game.

“Our guys have been struggling this year,” he said. “ But the guys have played with heart, and they’ve come ready to play.”

Jay County’s boys had to be ready to play. They were without starters junior forward Chad Keen, junior fullback Nick May and sophomore fullbacks Aaron Poole because of injuries.

The Patriots got big games from some back-ups and newcomers to make up for the losses.

“Scooter did an excellent job, and so did Luke (McClung),” said Bailey of the pair of freshman forwards. “Both of them stepped up tonight and did a real nice job. I like seeing the freshmen be able to step up like that.”

Bailey also praised junior Jonas Schoenherr, who played defense Thursday despite usually coming off the bench as a midfielder.

The Patriots will go for their seventh consecutive win when they play at South Adams Saturday. The game will be part of a double-header, with the girls squads playing at 10 a.m. with the boys to follow at noon.[[In-content Ad]]