Vikings edge JC (08/25/2008)

Huntington North hit the Patriots with a first-minute strike. From that point, everything was even.

Jay County High School's girls soccer team played the rest of the first half scoreless with the visiting Vikings, and both teams scored twice in the second Saturday as HNHS took a 3-2 victory.

"With our inexperience, our touches aren't good, but I can't fault the effort of these kids," said JCHS coach Ed Wellman. "We've got two subs right now, 13 players, and these kids are gutting it out. They're giving it everything they've got."

Huntington North got on the board in a hurry as the Patriot defense let the ball roll freely across the front of the goal. Viking freshman Shelby Bradford tapped it in for a 1-0 lead just one minute into the game.

"We're making rookie mistakes," said Wellman. "The first goal they scored was a mental mistake. ... The effort was there, but when you're young and inexperienced ... it's going to happen."

But after that the inexperienced JCHS team settled down and neither team scored in the final 39 minutes of the opening half. The Patriots got two goals from Brianne Wellman, one off a Kaelee Keller assist, in the second half, but HNHS also scored twice to take the victory.

"We talked at halftime about crossing the ball more ... and doing more give-and-gos because their forwards were pushing up so much," said Wellman of the second-half scores. "There was a lot of space between their fullbacks and their keeper, and we hit that space a couple times."

Brianne Wellman, who has scored all four of the goals for the Patriots (0-1-1) in their first two games, had nine shots on goal. Keller took six shots, and Mallory Poole had three.

Mollie May finished with 24 saves for Jay County.

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