Speed stops Patriots’ season

YORKTOWN — Speed is hard to teach.

It can be hard to stop it, too.

Delta’s Brayden Stanley used his quickness to get around the Jay County defense and netted the eventual game-winning goal in the waning moments of extra time to hand the Patriot boys soccer team a 2-1 loss in the Class 2A Sectional 24 quarterfinal Tuesday at Yorktown Sports Park.

“It was what we were expecting,” said JCHS coach Brad Horn, whose team ends the year at 8-5-1. “We knew it was going to be a solid game. We knew we weren’t going to blow them out (and) we knew they weren’t going to blow us out.

“Both teams played very well. They had missed opportunities. It wasn’t lopsided in any way. They just had a couple more finishes. Hats off to them.”

Delta advances to the sectional semifinal at 7 p.m. tonight against the Burris Owls, who defeated the Eastbrook Panthers 4-1 later Tuesday night. The other semifinal pits No. 14 Yorktown against New Castle. The sectional final is slated for 2 p.m. Saturday.

Jay County and Delta were tied 1-1 after 80 minutes of play to force two, seven-minute extra periods.

Just like regulation, the first extra period went back-and-forth with no team really gaining control, although Delta (8-5-1) had a 4-3 edge in scoring chances. Neither team was able to net the go-ahead goal.

In the final three minutes of the second extra period, Jay County had two prime chances to score, but both came up empty. On the first, Gavin Muhlenkamp sent a free kick toward the net that led to a JCHS corner, and he took the ensuing attempt but sailed it over the net.

Delta quickly reversed field and Stanley, who scored the equalizer for the Eagles in the 42nd minute, had the ball on the left side of the JCHS penalty box. The speedster dribbled toward the center of the field and kept going to the right corner of the box before putting the ball into the net with 30 seconds remaining on the clock.

“It wasn’t that he was doing moves to get around our guys,” Horn said. “It was just flat out speed. You can’t teach speed. He is skilled, but that’s all we could do.”

Another 30 seconds and the match would have gone to penalty kicks.

“We have bad luck,” Horn said, referencing the fact it’s the third time in six years Jay County has had its season end on a goal in the final minute. “It’s never treated us well but we have to fight through it.”

Jay County, which lost to Delta 5-4 when they met Aug. 26 in rural Muncie, got on the board first in the waning moments of the opening half.

Freshman Dylan Marentes, positioned just inside the Patriots’ attacking half of the field, passed to his brother Cristian, a senior, near the right corner. Cristian dribbled through a pair of defenders and sent a cross pass toward the top of the 18-yard box to freshman Levi Muhlenkamp, who was streaking past two Eagle defenders. Muhlenkamp beat Delta keeper David Trimmel to put the Patriots out front with 27 seconds to play before halftime.

“That was very skilled,” Horn said of the teamwork between the Marentes brothers and Muhlenkamp.

But less than two minutes out of intermission, Stanley scored his first goal of the night to tie the game.

“Honestly I don’t feel the game changed too much,” Horn said of the dynamic of the contest following Stanley’s ninth goal of the season. “If we would have went down 1-0 that might have been a different scenario. We were still pushing and still doing what we should.

“We had three, four opportunities to score we just didn’t finish them.”

Tuesday’s loss marked the end of the JCHS careers for eight seniors, nearly half the team’s roster. Cristian Marentes was the team’s leading scorer each of the last three seasons, and goalkeeper Ian Ruiz ended his career with 14 shutouts.

Midfielders Gavin Muhlenkamp and Jayden Maymi as well as defenders Dylan Knapshafer, Adam Muhlenkamp, Bryce Collins and Juan Pablo Wiggins also played their last game as Patriots.

“We’re going to miss all the seniors,” Horn said. “They were a big part of everything we did the past four years. We can’t really replace them.”