Vikes oust JCHS

MARION - For a 60-minute stretch the Patriots played solid soccer. It was the damage done in the first 17 that hurt them.

The Huntington North Vikings scored three times in the first 17 minutes of Thursday's high school girls soccer sectional semifinal. Jay County held them scoreless for the next 60, but couldn't muster any offense in a 5-0 defeat.

"They were watching the ball," said JCHS coach Abby Champ of her team's struggles early on. "They weren't moving to it like they did in the last 23 minutes (of the first half) and the first 30 minutes of the second half when we kept them scoreless."

All of Huntington North's goals came in a 10-minute span, the first after the ball scooted past Patriot defender Nikka Chaney near the right post. That left Reagan Valenzuela of the Vikings with a one-on-one, and her shot deflected off goalie Mollie May's hand to the left corner of the net for a 1-0 lead with 32:05 on the clock.

Seven minutes later Alyssa Grabner's corner kick from the right side got to Kelsey Hollowell inside the 18-yard box. She hit a grounder right up the middle to push her team's advantage to two.

And with 23:20 on the clock the Vikings (8-10) broke through the defense again, this time with Grabner scoring on an assist from Shelby Bradford.

"When you give a straight shot from the PK line [Hollowell's goal], that's defense out of place, that's people getting beat," said Champ. "I would say communication was part of it in the beginning as well.

"In the second half they were really talking a lot better than they did in the first half."

Jay County, which lost 3-0 to the Vikings in the regular season, settled down after the goal by Grabner and the teams played scoreless soccer for the remainder of the first half. But while the Patriots slowed down Huntington North, they couldn't muster much of an attack.

The ball rarely crossed the center line to the JCHS offensive end of the field for the first 20 minutes of the second half. And the few times the Patriots got the ball through the Huntington North defense - they had no shots on goal - goalie Kaylie Dunn was aggressive in rushing out to clear it on her own.

"It's scary sometimes," said HNHS coach Gary Baltzell with a chuckle. "We've been working with her on that, and I think she made some good decisions. ...

"She's been doing a really good job anticipating and calling some people off. I was really happy with the way she played today."

After the three early goals, the Patriots didn't give up another score until they cleared the bench and pulled May from the goalie position. Hollowell, a freshman who missed most of the season with an injury, put the ball in the net on assists from Valenzuela and Bradford in the final four minutes.

"We worked on some things that worked as a game plan," said Baltzell, noting that his team had been holding onto the ball too long in recent games. "We like one-touch pinging around the infield and taking two people on a defender. The other thing we were doing was just taking some farther out shots.

"We're trying to distribute a little better and take shots from further out.

"Reagan Valenzuela did a great job of distributing."

The Vikings advance to Saturday's sectional championship game at Marion at 5 p.m. They will play Blackford, which defeated Marion 3-1 in Thursday's first semifinal game.

Jay County finished the year with a 5-9-1 record after a slow start to the year. The Patriots were 3-3-1 in their final seven games, including Tuesday's 3-2 sectional quarterfinal win over South Adams in a sudden death penalty kick shootout.

"We accomplished a lot of our goals," said Champ, who complimented seniors Erica Butcher, Loryn Horn, Kayla Phillips and Mariana Garcia. "We won (the Olympic Athletic Conference). We won a game in sectional.

"They've come a long way. ... We've got a lot to build from."[[In-content Ad]]