Head-ed to the final

ARCADIA — For most of the season, Mara Bader has handled the corner kick duties.

She is not afraid to admit some go too far while others don’t even make it to the net.

She’s far from perfect.

Her seventh and final strike Thursday night, however, was.

Gabi Bilbrey scored a goal on a header off of Bader’s corner kick in the 71st minute, propelling the Jay County High School girls soccer team to a 5-4 victory against the Delta Eagles in the Class 2A Sectional 24 semifinal at Hamilton Heights.

“It feels amazing,” said Bader, who also had three first-half goals. “I’m just so grateful for our team. We are a very, very young team. We came out here and we did it.

“All these girls don’t know what sectional is like and I just want them to get the best experience they can.”

Jay County, which withstood one of the nation’s top scorers, improves to 10-4-1 and meets No. 15 Hamilton Heights in the sectional championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday. The host Huskies shut out defending champion Yorktown 3-0 earlier Thursday.

“Delta is an incredible team with some incredible players,” said JCHS coach Renae Laux, whose team lost to the Eagles 4-1 Sept. 21. “When we played them the first time … ultimately our girls have been working hard. As every day has passed they have learned more and more how to trust each other. This is a sport that can’t be done by one player or two players alone.

“They have to trust that people are going to do their part and do their job. We want to be playing our best soccer at the end of the year and I feel like that’s what we’re doing right now.”







After weathering a quick storm from Delta senior and future Louisville Cardinal Addie Chester late in the first half, Jay County remained on the offensive for most of the final 40 minutes.

The Patriots had four corner kicks with less than 30 minutes to play in the game. The first was deflected to another corner, which yielded no clean shot. Bilbrey made an attempt by deflecting the ball with her chest on the third, but it got saved. So, too, did the fourth.

As Bader and the Patriots got another corner with 10 minutes to play, Delta again deflected it past the end line to give Bader another chance.

This one, a curved, right-footed cross, met Bilbrey near the front of the net and the junior put it into the short side for the eventual game-winner with 9:44 to play.

“I just knew I had to get something in there to get a body on it,” Bader said. “I was so grateful that Gabi was there.”

From that point, Jay County kept Chester and the Eagles in check for the remainder of the game.

“Right after that you’ve got to dial it in and make sure everyone knows it only takes 15 or even 10 seconds for a player like (Chester) to go from the other end of the field to our end and shoot,” Laux said. “Obviously I’m excited (about Bilbrey’s goal) but I know it’s not over ’til it’s over.”

Bader and Bilbrey helped stake Jay County to a 4-1 lead less than 30 minutes into the game. Bader started her hat trick by taking the ball deep into the right corner of the field before going short side for the goal in the 14th minute. She added another 53 seconds later on a Bilbrey through pass that Bader deflected past Delta keeper Topanga White at top of the 18-yard box before tapping it in for goal No. 2.

Addie Chester put Delta on the board in the 22nd minute, only to have Bilbrey notch her first mark with 15:12 to play before intermission. Bader completed her hat trick in the 29th minute on another Bilbrey feed.

It was the third consecutive game Bader has had three or more goals.

“It’s because of my team,” she said. “I could not have done it without them. I guarantee none of them were by myself. Everyone on that team got me through it; everyone on the bench, everyone on the field, everyone.”

But then Chester got to work.

She scored her first goal with 6:19 to play in the first half, darting through the JCHS defense for her 53rd goal of the season. Just 56 seconds later, she scored No. 54, and she completed her own hat trick with 2:21 left before half.

She never got another clean chance, though. Jayla Huelskamp, a JCHS freshman who was shadowing Chester for the entire game, and the rest of the Patriots made things difficult for her over the final 40 minutes.

“She’s an incredible player and very, very, very fast so we knew she was going to score,” Laux said. Chester finished with 201 goals for her career, and the 55th goal of the season put her third in the country for goals this year.

“I expected every bit of that,” Laux continued. “It was a matter of making sure the girls understood she is going to score but trust your offense; they have your back. Just continue to be in the way and the less shots she takes the better.”