Opening win (08/17/07)

The host Patriots sent the invading Patriots home with a sound defeat.

Jay County tallied two goals in a span of less than three minutes during a dominant opening half and cruised to a 3-0, season-opening win Thursday over the visiting Heritage Patriots.

After a few minutes of stalemate near midfield to open the game, the first half belonged completely to Jay County. Goalkeeper Abby Loy touched the ball just once - a kick - as Heritage was unable to manage a single shot on goal before the intermission.

"I was very pleased," said JCHS coach Sue Rager, whose team kept the ball almost entirely on its half of the field for a 30-minute span during the first half. "They had a lot of passing and a lot of give-and-gos. The girls were working well together."

Dana Horn just missed on a chance to deflect a ball into the net 10 minutes into the game, but came up big five minutes later.

The senior took a pass from classmate Cassandra Huelskamp and sliced between defenders Kristen Grothaus and Kristen Hormann.

Continued from page 12

With the two Kristens left chasing, Horn beat freshman goalie Julie Hockemeyer with a right-to-left shot across the front of the goal for the first Jay County score of the season.

Horn's tally came with 24:43 on the clock in the first half, and she keyed the team's second goal less than three minutes later.

Heritage had control of the ball after a miss by Jay County, but Horn stepped in front of her counterpart to steal the ensuing goal kick. She took a couple of dribbles toward the goal before sending a pass across the front.

It evaded the control of several players in both red and white jerseys before ending up at the foot of her sophomore sister, Loryn. The younger Horn looped the ball back across from just inside the 18-yard box on the left side to the right corner for the first goal of her career.

"Everybody stepped it up a notch as far as where they've been practicing to how they played tonight," said Rager, whose team racked up 16 shots on goal overall. "I was really pleased with the effort that everybody put into the game."

The Horn goals staked Jay County to a 2-0 lead at halftime.

Although the final margin was the same as last season when JCHS topped Heritage 6-3, first-year coach Tom Utnage was happy with the effort. He said after the squad gave up 66 goals a year ago, its goal is to cut that total in half this season.

"Each game we're looking for improvements, and we've seen it in each half actually," said Utnage. "We have some talent out here, it's just going to take some work molding it into a team."

Brianne Wellman, who finished second on the team with three shots on goal following Dana Horn's eight, added the final score early in the second half. Taking control just outside the 18-yard box, she swerved around Lauren Saalfrank, Ashley Gibson and Shahollany Wright of Heritage, buying just enough time to get a shot off and past Hockemeyer for the 3-0 lead.

Jay County (1-0) had several other scoring opportunities, but didn't need them as the defense completely clamped down on Heritage.

After touching the ball just once in the entire opening half, Loy didn't get much more action in the second as Heritage managed just one shot on goal after the break. That try came from junior Jelena Bade but every other time the visitors tried to make a run, sophomore defensive tandem Kayla Phillips and Pazia Speed shut them down.

"We definitely have some really strong girls in the back defensively," said Rager. "They're fast. That's the key to a good team - you've got speed on the front end and the back end. And we definitely have speed on our team."[[In-content Ad]]