Patriots' streak snapped

Sometimes, teams just have an off day.
Thursday was one of those days for the Patriots.
Jay County High School’s boys soccer team had its four-game winning streak snapped with a 4-1 loss to the visiting Bellmont Braves.
“We didn’t have a great practice the other day,” said JCHS coach Adam Daniels, whose team falls to 5-4. “I told them bad practices lead to bad starts of games.”
Bellmont coach Jake Briede, whose squad is coming off back-to-back Northeast Eight Conference losses to Huntington North and Leo, was happy with the way his team was able to bounce back from those defeats.
“Overall I think we played really well,” Briede said. The Braves move to 6-4-1. “It was good to come out and possess the ball more.”
Bellmont pretty much controlled possession for the entire first half, which resulted in a 3-0 lead heading into intermission.
Chance Bressler put Bellmont up 1-0 just 2 minutes, 9 seconds, into the game on an assist from Grant Ainsworth. The senior forward had the ball deep down the right side of the field and sent a cross pass into the box that Bressler deflected out of the air and into the left side of the net past JCHS goalkeeper Trevor Moeller.
“That is how I would like all the goals to be scored,” Briede said. “Nice, easy touch, just stick your foot out and hit it and have it go into the back of the net.”
But Daniels felt that all three Bellmont goals — Jay County had an own goal in the 14th minute to give the visitors a 2-0 advantage — came too easily.
“We were out of position,” he said. “We were gambling on plays we shouldn’t have gambled on, giving up possession easily at midfield.”
While the Braves were making one-touch passes to teammates, finding space and going on runs down the field, the Patriots were doing nearly the opposite. The few times Jay County was able to possess the ball, it didn’t last long. Bellmont’s defense challenged, forcing errant passes by the Patriots that often didn’t find teammates.
Trailing 2-0, Jay County was able to string together a couple chances, with Nathan Heitkamp, Ian Reynolds and Jason Schlosser all taking shots, but none of them found the back of the net.
Bellmont’s Sam Ainsworth gave the Braves a 3-0 advantage with his goal in the 33rd minute. He was near the top right side of the 18-yard box, stopped a bouncing ball and fired a shot to the far side of the net.
“I was satisfied with the 3-nil lead at halftime just to (take) a little pressure off of us and possess the game a little bit in the second half,” Briede said.
Opportunities came easier for Jay County in the second half, as it was able to get a number of shots on goal.
Sophomore Angel Perez took the ball through a trio of Bellmont defenders and into the box, but one of his touches was a little too hard and Brave goalkeeper Manny Brewer was there to make the save. Freshman Daniel Fugiett had a secondary shot, but it too was knocked away.
The Patriots broke the shutout in the 51st minute on a goal by Nathan Heitkamp. The junior scored his team-leading ninth goal of the season when he deflected a deep through pass from Jason Schlosser past Brewer before colliding with the keeper in the box.
Nearly 15 minutes later, however, Bellmont added an insurance goal when Moeller left the box in an attempt to play the ball and couldn’t get a good grasp on it. With the ball rolling toward an empty net Bellmont’s Ty Razo gave it a soft touch to make sure it crossed the goal line.
Still, Daniels was pleased with the effort in the final 40 minutes despite the deficit.
“Any time that they can keep battling it shows the team has a little bit of heart, which is promising,” said Daniels, whose team was without senior defenseman Colton Compton and junior midfielder Zach Chaney. Compton is suspended four games for a violation of team rules. Chaney has been nursing a leg injury, and his return is uncertain. “Sometimes you just get too far down and you can’t come back.
“The reason we lost is we just didn’t play well. We started off bad. You can’t do that and win a soccer game. You’ll have these nights.”