Patriots can’t contain weapons in loss

ARCADIA — The Patriots were able to fight off one of the best scorers in the state in the semifinal.

Their championship opponent simply had too many weapons to overcome.

The Jay County High School girls soccer team gave up six first-half goals to the host and 15th-ranked Hamilton Heights Huskies in Saturday’s Class 2A Sectional 24 championship game on the way to a 9-0 defeat. The game ended a few minutes early because of the new mercy rule implemented this year.

“That team is sound from their defense up to their offense,” said JCHS coach Renae Laux. “They get good first touches. They know where to make their runs. They’re a very possessional team. They just did a great job.”

Hamilton Heights (16-3), the visiting team on the scoreboard although it hosted the tournament, wasted no time in putting pressure on the Patriots’ defense. It got its first great scoring chance just 23 seconds into the game when senior goalie Tricia Ison had to make a spectacular diving save to deny a rebound shot by Huskies junior Cassidy Felger. Another shot went just high at the 37:52 mark, and Ison made another save less than two minutes later.

The shooting barrage finally broke through at the 31:02 mark when senior Jayla Logan took a pass from Felger just inside the 18-yard box and powered a shot past a diving Ison for a 1-0 lead.

It was the only goal the Huskies needed, but they got plenty more as five players would connect. It was a contrast in styles after JCHS overcame Delta’s Addie Chester — she was among the nation’s leaders with 55 goals this season — tallying three of her team’s four goals in Thursday’s semifinal.

Hamilton Heights scored twice in the span of less than two minutes to take firm control of the game, with senior Kyndall Ferguson attacking the right post in the 16th minute and sophomore Ella Hickok redirecting a shot into the net in the 17th. Logan scored her second goal on a bomb from 30 yards out that sailed over Ison’s head with 10:32 to play, Ferguson put in her second with 4:50 on the clock and Logan completed her hat trick with 2:52 to go before halftime.

“I thought we set the tone quickly. And we held that the first half,” said Hamilton Heights coach Travis Kauffman, whose team will play the winner of tonight’s Bellmont versus Marion sectional championship game — it was postponed because of poor field conditions — in Wednesday’s regional at Bellmont. “I was really happy with our first half, the control of the field, the passing connections, the opportunities created.”

The six goals the Huskies gave up in the first half were more than Jay County had allowed in any full game this season. (Its most lop-sided loss this year had been a 5-0 defeat at Bellmont.)

The Patriots’ best scoring opportunity in the first half had come about five minutes into the game when Morgan DeHoff, Molly Muhlenkamp and Mara Bader connected on passes down the right side. But Bader’s shot was saved by Hamilton Heights goalie Jenn Houser.

JCHS (10-5-1) had a few good corner kick opportunities in the second half, including one that resulted in a header from junior Gabi Bilbrey in the 17th minute, but Houser corralled all of its shots.

Hamilton Heights pushed its advantage to 8-0 on goals by Emma Hall and Felger. And Hall ended the game with just a few minutes left on the clock when she tapped a shot home off of a Kate Hayes corner kick.

(The new mercy rule this year calls for a running clock if a team takes a five-goal lead. A game ends if a team takes a nine-goal lead and at least 60 minutes have been played.)

“I’ve been on the end of losing a game like this as well in my own high school career,” said Laux. “So I understand how hard it is to continue to play through a game like this. And our girls did that. They did it with sportsmanship. They did it with class. … I’m proud of them for sticking together, sticking as a team and finishing it out in the right way.”

In addition to being proud of the attitude her team took Saturday, Laux was able to look back at progress made this year. The Patriots won two more games than a year ago — they were 8-8-1 last season — scored 29 more goals and advanced to the sectional championship game for the first time since 2015. (Their last sectional title was in 2014.)

Prior to Saturday’s defeat, JCHS had won four in a row — consecutive shutouts of Blackford, Muncie Central and New Castle followed by a 5-4 revenge win over Delta. (The Patriots had lost 4-1 to Delta just two weeks earlier.)

“What I was happy to see was that I believe that they could go win that game on Thursday,” said Laux, whose squad loses just one starter — Ison — to graduation. “What was fun was that they believed that they could win that game on Thursday. It was fun. … Some girls had to dig deeper than they knew they could. That’s great. … That’s just another building block.

“They definitely made a lot of progress this year.”