Win it in a minute

The Patriots weren’t happy with their 1-1 tie with New Castle on Tuesday.

They took that frustration and turned it into aggression as they attacked the Warriors early to score in less than a minute.

Dylan Marentes wasted no time putting Jay County High School’s boys soccer team on the board Saturday in a 4-1 Allen County Athletic Conference victory over the Woodlan Warriors.

The Patriots (1-1-1, 1-0 ACAC) started with control of the ball and quickly moved downfield. The fast attack capped off with Marentes sliding to kick the ball past Woodlan’s freshman goalie Keaton Delagrange for a score after only 58 seconds ran off the clock.

“Scoring in the early game gives you the mental (confidence),” Jay County coach Bobby Ruiz said. “Everyone says, ‘Yeah, we can do this.’ They set their mind into a positive pattern. Everybody works better when you have an early score in your favor.”

The Patriots weren’t satisfied with the first early score. They continued to apply pressure to the Warriors (0-5, 0-1 ACAC), keeping the ball between the midfield line and Woodlan’s goal throughout the first half.

Six minutes after the initial goal, freshman Blake Collins found himself with the ball near the midfield line up with Jakson Hamrick to his back. He made a hard turn around Hamrick towards the sideline and found an angle to take the ball upfield uncontested. Once Collins was near the penalty box the defense collapsed on him, and he found Levi Muhlenkamp near the center of the box for the Patriots’ second goal at 32:51.

“Since we tied New Castle 1-1, we were pretty frustrated with that one,” Muhlenkamp said. “So we wanted to come out hot and prove ourselves and that’s what we did.”

The pair connected for a second time later in the half. Collins again worked his way down the field until Tanner Martin cut him off. He found Muhlenkamp in the center of the penalty box. The Warriors’ Lucas Gramajo slid in to try and stop the shot, but Muhlenkamp was able to connect, scoring for a second time to make it a 3-0 game at 20:20 in the first half.

Collins said working on making quick decisions, good communication and focusing on timing helped him connect with Muhlenkamp for the goals.

“He’s been crossing in practices and they’ve all been pretty good,” Muhlenkamp said of Collins. “We’ve been working from there and just had to put it out on the field.”

Despite going with a different lineup for the second half to get some different players game experience, the Patriots had a strong start and found another early goal.

In the sixth minute, Caleb Schwartz of Woodlan committed a hand ball just outside of the penalty box, leading to a free kick. Muhlenkamp took the kick, but it was saved by Delagrange.

The save wouldn’t matter, as Oskar Alart Mateo crashed the goal to put in the rebound for an easy score at 34:15.

Ruiz was impressed by Alart Mateo’s play throughout the match as he was bounced around positions when trying out different lineups.

“Oskar did pretty good today,” Ruiz said. “He showed me that he can be a multi-position player because he can play in the front, he can play in the back and he can play in the middle.”

After starting the season with a loss and a tie, the Patriots’ coach looked at Saturday’s game as a must-win.

“I told the guys ‘there is no option, this is a win,’” Ruiz said. “We can’t even think about a tie or a loss. We can’t afford another result like that. We have to win today no matter what.

“I think they got through their minds and we achieved it.”