Patriot set-up pays off

MUNCIE — The Patriots have had a tough time converting on set pieces this season.
They found the back of the net on two such opportunities Thursday.
One was a game winner.
Zach Chaney launched the ball toward the net and Nathan Heitkamp buried a rebound for his second goal of the game to propel the Jay County High School boys soccer team to a 3-2 victory against Delta.
“Those set piece goals are huge,” said first-year JCHS coach Adam Daniels, whose team moved to 2-4 on the season with the win against its sectional rival. “Any time you can score on a set piece it makes your team lethal.
“You’re going to get those set piece opportunities every single game. We have the height. We should be able to win balls in the box and score on those set pieces.”
Heitkamp agreed with his coach on the importance of free plays.
“That set play is just a big play for us,” he said. “We have been trying to hit those all year. Finally got one on it, we all crashed the keeper and someone finally got a touch on it. It finally fell for us.”
With about 3:20 left on the clock, Jay County was awarded a free kick following a Delta foul. Chaney, who had assisted on an Angel Perez goal earlier in the half, sent the ball toward Hunter Kittrell, Delta’s freshman goalkeeper.
Kittrell got a hand on the ball but wasn’t able to punch it out of the box. The ball bounced around between Kittrell, JCHS sophomore Zaaron Lee, Heitkamp and a host of Delta defenders. Lee took a swipe at the ball but missed, and Heitkamp’s shot found the right side of the empty net.
After a brief celebration by Jay County, the linesman and head official conferred to talk about the play. After about a 15-second conversation, the official awarded the Patriots the go-ahead goal.
Following the game, the head official said he and the linesman consulted one another because he saw a handball by a Delta player. If that was the case, the Patriots would have been awarded a penalty kick, but the linesman told him the ball had already crossed the goal line.
Heitkamp’s second goal of the game was nearly the game-tying goal, rather than the go-ahead goal.
Delta (1-4) had a perfect opportunity to break the 2-2 tie when it was awarded a PK after a foul in the 18-yard box with 5:34 left in the contest. But Nate Osner’s free shot sailed over the net and drew cheers from the Jay County fans.
That’s when momentum shifted back to Jay County and led to the game-winning goal.
The field wasn’t always slanted in Jay County’s favor though, despite Heitkamp scoring six minutes into the game on an assist from Colton Compton.
In the first half, Delta had the chance to tie the game on a number of occasions, but the chances were either whistled for offsides or missed the net.
Moeller only had four saves.
“You could tell we were slower than normal,” Daniels said.
And that was prevalent in the early part of the second half as Delta needed just 47 seconds to net the equalizer.
Hunter Miller sent a through pass from the left side of midfield to a streaking Alec Lynn down the right side of the field, and he put a shot past Moeller into the left side of the net.
The game remained tied for more than 20 minutes until Chaney sent a free kick toward the Delta goal following an offsides call. The ball bounced once near the top of the penalty area and Kittrell whiffed on an attempt to catch it. Angel Perez, who had gotten behind Kittrell, followed the ball toward the goal line and touched it in with his head for his third mark of the season with 17:56 remaining.
But Delta kept up its pressure and tied the game again. Moeller left the box to try to play a ball rolling toward him, and Osner kicked it past him for a goal.
Still, Jay County played to win rather than a draw.
“We’ve kind of had a problem with that, kids giving up on plays when something doesn’t go their way,” Daniels said. “(Tuesday) at New Castle, even though we were down big we kept fighting and got a few goals late.”
Jay County lost that game 7-3.
“Tonight (we) didn’t ever give up on the game, got a late goal and won,” Daniels said. “Any time you can fight to get a win like that it’s a huge win for the team.”

Junior varsity
Korbin Auker had a goal and assisted on another in the Patriots’ 3-2 victory against Delta.
Daniel Fugiett and Derrian Riojas also had goals for Jay County (2-2).
Patriot goalkeeper Jaden Robbins made two saves.