To the final

The Patriots will get a chance to defend their back-to-back sectional championships.
They’ll just have avenge a regular-season loss to bring home a third consecutive title.
Gabbie Mann scored three goals Tuesday and the Jay County High School girls soccer team’s defense kept the opportunities for the Delta Eagles to a minimum in a 5-1 victory in the Class 2A Sectional 15 semifinal at Yorktown Sports Park.
The Patriots (8-3-2) advance to the title game for the fifth straight year, and will meet the host Yorktown Tigers at 2 p.m. Saturday. Yorktown shut out Muncie Central 8-0 in the second semifinal Tuesday.
“We definitely came out as a more aggressive team, had more communication and passed more to feet,” said Mann, a senior who scored a pair of goals when the teams played to a 3-3 draw Sept. 22 in rural Muncie. “We played with more heart, our passes had more of a purpose and that was a huge factor in winning the game.”
Delta coach Jacci Glancy, whose team has lost its first game of the sectional tournament to Jay County in each of the last four seasons, said her squad simply wasn’t able to match the intensity and speed of the Patriots.
“They beat us to the ball on their crosses,” she said. The Eagles finished the season at 6-8-3. “They hit their gaps. They have some fast girls and they were more aggressive today.”
Jay County set the tone early, getting its first opportunity nearly three minutes into the contest while spending most of its time in the offensive half of the field. It was only a matter of time before it found the back of the net.
Forwards Sophie Bader, Mariah Bailey and Mann, as well as midfielder Alex Bader — Sophie’s sister — created chance after chance, peppering Delta goalkeeper Kortney Helm with shots. Then with 16 minutes, 48 seconds, remaining in the opening half, Bailey found the back of the net for the game’s first goal.
Bailey, a senior, had the ball in the right side of the goalie box and was challenged by Delta defender Brianna Stiffler. Bailey slipped as she tried to reverse field — Stiffler hit the ground too — and got up, dribbled around Stiffler and put a right-footed shot to the far side of the net past Helm. It was Bailey’s fifth tally of the year.
“It is huge,” JCHS coach Giles Laux said of getting the first goal. “We knew that if we could set the tone we’d stay with it and that’s what we planned on doing. We didn’t want just one (goal) and play keep away.”
Sophie Bader, who had taken a number of shots from her place on the left side of the field, nearly put the Patriots ahead 2-0 in the 33rd minute. Bader rifled another attempt from the left side that Helm tipped with her hands, but it hit the crossbar and bounced out.
Two minutes later, Bader wasn’t denied again.
From the right side of the field, Mann switched to the left side and sent a ball in to Bader, who put a left-footer into the right side of the net for her eighth goal of the season.
Then, Mann got going three minutes later to help bury the Eagles.
She notched her first goal of the game on a perfect touch from Alex Bader in the 38th minute for a 3-0 Patriot lead.
The score would remain there at half, until Delta’s Bailee Allen scored on a free kick during the 44th minute.
Mann, who tallied her second hat trick of the season, scored her second goal on a penalty kick late in the second half, and notched her third tally with 3:33 remaining on the clock.
Delta was never able to get its offense going, as it spent most of the game defending Jay County’s attack. When the Eagles got chances, though, the Patriots’ quick defense spoiled the opportunities.
“They stepped it up, the unsung heroes,” Laux said of his back line, made up of Briana Muhlenkamp, Emily Muhlenkamp, Megan Smith, Breea Liette, Alli Ruiz and Kayla Ferguson. “Delta likes to do a lot of dump and run and we didn’t let them.”
Jay County meets a Yorktown team Saturday that it lost to 2-1 on Sept. 24 in Portland. During that game, Yorktown scored 26 seconds out of halftime and hung on for the win.
To come out on the winning end this time, Laux said the Patriots have to keep the intensity they showed Tuesday against Delta.
“Same thing we did tonight, plain and simple,” he said. Yorktown won the first two meetings for the sectional championship in 2011 and 2012. The Patriots have won the last two. “(We have to) play with the level of intensity and confidence that we know we have. They are going to bring it.
Mann said she and her teammates are more than able to avenge the September loss and bring home a third trophy.
“I know we are more than capable of getting that three-peat this year,” she said. “We’ve worked hard all season so I know we will bring our all on Saturday to get that victory.”