Girls get back-to-back championships

YORKTOWN — As the Class 2A Sectional 15 girls soccer championship game progressed Saturday night, both Jay County coach Giles Laux and Yorktown coach Zach Rabenstein realized it would only take one goal to win.
When that goal would come, though, neither of them expected.
Jay County High School junior Gabbie Mann stole the ball at the top of the 18-yard box, caught Yorktown keeper Michelle Bess out of position and buried a shot into the right side of the net with 46 seconds left, lifting the Patriots to a 1-0 victory at Yorktown Sports Park.
The Patriots advance to the regional semifinal against the Fishers Tigers at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Logansport. Sixth-ranked Fishers knocked off Class 2A No. 3 Hamilton Southeastern 2-1 in the Noblesville sectional.
Mann, who also scored the game-winning goal in 2013 against Yorktown to secure the first sectional title in program history, said she anticipated the turnover.
“I could tell she was going to trap it forward, so I took the opportunity to steal it from her, look for that corner and just get it in there,” said Mann, who notched her team-high 30th goal of the season.
Rabenstein, who coached the Yorktown boys in a loss to Jay County earlier in the day (see related story), had an idea Mann would be the one to score for the Patriots.
“We knew (she) was probably going to score on us,” said Rabenstein, whose team ended the season at 9-9. “That is who we need to not have the ball on her feet, and she did.”
Despite Yorktown controlling the ball for the majority of the opening 40 minutes, Jay County (9-6) saw momentum shift in its favor near the midway point of the second half.
Senior Catherine Dunn, sophomore Stormi Canterbury and Mann, all forwards, had plenty of chances as the clock ticked away.
There was a feeling that it was only a matter of time before the Patriots found the back of the net.
“I told Gabbie we just have to keep knocking, and if they don’t answer, we knock the door down,” said first-year JCHS coach Laux, whose team defeated Delta in penalty kicks in Tuesday’s semifinal. “It was a big turnover. That’s usually the difference in big sports games, and it was (Saturday).
“I still feel we were the David, they were the Goliath, even though we were defending champions. We just weren’t going to quit.”
Yorktown had three chances in the first five minutes and two more 10 minutes later — all of which came up empty. JCHS sophomore goalkeeper Lilly Rogers, who made two stops against Delta in PKs, kept the Yorktown offense at bay.
But the Tigers’ chances kept coming.
Late in the opening half, Yorktown had the ball deep in its offensive zone but Jay County’s Mariah Bailey and Lexi Myers each deflected away shots.
After spending a good portion of the half on defense, Mann said the Patriots talked at halftime about working together, communicating better to get the ball up the field and to making better runs.
The adjustments worked, as Dunn and Mann both had scoring opportunities just minutes into the second half.
Yorktown answered with a handful of opportunities of its own, but the final 20 minutes of the game belonged to Jay County.
Dunn had two shots from inside the penalty area sail over the net, with each bringing big sighs from the Jay County crowd. Canterbury also had a chance when she got through down the left side and deep into the Yorktown end, but she was whistled offside.
With time ticking off the clock and extra time imminent, Mann made sure the game would only last 80 minutes.
After her goal, the junior sprinted to teammates Emma Laux, Sophie Bader, Dunn and Canterbury at midfield to celebrate.
“I was hoping for extra time,” Rabenstein said. “I was hoping maybe we could go to PKs because I didn’t think we could do it in regulation.”
For Laux, the victory is a bit of revenge after losing to Yorktown 3-1 Sept. 25.
“It was a 1-1 game and they got two goals they shouldn’t have,” Laux said. “I think our defense played much better (Saturday) than they did the first time we played them.”
As Jay County lives to play at least one more game, Laux is more than happy his team is going back to regional.
“I’m proud of these girls,” he said. “They just never quit. We didn’t want the season to end (Saturday), and we don’t want it to end Wednesday.”