Late score lifts Patriots (08/24/07)

MUNCIE - There's nothing like waiting until the last minute ... or the last two.

It took the Patriots that long to play the kind of soccer coach Alan Bailey had been looking for during Thursday's entire second half. But when it happened, Justen Moser knocked in the game-winning goal with just 1:14 remaining in the Jay County boys soccer team's 2-1 triumph over the host Delta Eagles.

"That's what they're capable of doing," said Bailey following his team's first win of the season. "We knew that we had the opportunity there to play with their backs, to do the chip-and-run. That was our big speech at halftime was to get it to our wings to try to get the cross to get the score. When we finally got that to happen, we got the score."

Overall, Bailey wasn't pleased with the way his team played in the second half as Delta controlled most of the action after the intermission. The Eagles barely missed on a variety of scoring opportunities only to have the Patriots get the job done when the game was on the line.

With less than two minutes remaining and the score tied at one, Patrick Johnson passed forward on the left side to Brad Horn near midfield. Horn, who was responsible for Jay County's first goal, pushed the ball to Chase Ainsworth in the middle of the field.

Ainsworth took a couple of dribbles up the middle before passing ahead to Horn again on the right side. He quickly crossed the ball in front of the goal and Moser came charging in from the left to re-direct it past Eagle goalie Christopher Nordmo and into the back of the net.

"I just think we probably were a mix of tired and ... I don't know. Sometimes it's hard to explain breakdowns like that," said Delta coach Luke Almon, whose team is now 1-2. "They just had the numbers it seemed. On a counter attack it's kind of hard to get your defense reset. I think we were kind of running around chasing the ball when we should have just gotten set and played defense."

Moser's goal came with just 1:14 on the clock, and Delta wasn't able to get a good scoring opportunity in the closing moments.

That was not the story for most of the second half as the Eagles pounded shot after shot at Patriot goalie Adam Daniels.

Delta junior Matt Pryon knocked an attempt off the left post at the 22:45 mark, and the ball skidded back across the front of the goal before being kicked harmlessly out of bounds. Pryor booted another shot off the crossbar at 16:10, and Ryan Klett's try with 9:18 left on the clock also went off the crossbar.

Almon said with all of those chances and more he felt his team could have walked away with a four-goal victory. Bailey agreed.

"Oh my gosh, five balls off the bar ... there's no way we should have won that game the way we played," said Bailey. "These kids have a got a long ways to go yet ...

"I'm just happy to get out of here with a win. Any time you can come to Delta and get a win, I'm happy."

Although Daniels did get some help from the bars and the post, he also made several impressive saves in relief of starter Kevin Dirksen.

"I thought he did a real nice job as a sophomore stepping in ... I didn't ask him to be a keeper until five days before our first game because I didn't have a good back-up," said Bailey of Daniels, who patrolled the net for the final 63 minutes of the game.

"I knew with his athletic ability he could step in and do it. He ... did a nice job."

Horn, who also assisted to Moser on the Patriots' only other goal of the season in Tuesday's 1-1 tie with New Castle, put the Patriots on top in the first half.

A corner kick from Moser on the right side went almost all the way through the box before being tapped back to the middle. Horn was able to gain control amidst several Delta defenders and pound the ball home for a 1-0 lead just 2:05 into the contest.

Delta's score came at the 23:13 mark after Dirksen left the goal box to try to clear the ball back down the field. He only got a piece of the ball, which rolled back toward the middle and was gathered in by Pryon. The junior took a few dribbles toward his left and fired a long shot just inside the right post before Dirksen was able to recover.

Almon said he felt his Eagles were just unlucky on many of their other shots, but "What makes it worse is we played Marion on Saturday and they scored in the exact same fashion in the last minute and 15 seconds. It's tough ..."[[In-content Ad]]