Back to the final

GAS CITY — Andrew Christman was a wall for the Trojans.

But some inspired play by the Patriots during a six-minute stretch got the better of him.

After the New Castle Trojans tied the game up, the Jay County High School boys soccer team played with purpose to advance the IHSAA Class 2A Sectional 24 championship with a 3-1 win in Wednesday’s semifinal.

With the win, Jay County (11-3-2) earns a trip to the sectional championship game for the second year in a row. Last season it beat Eastbrook 2-0 to make it to the regional. 

The Patriots will face Mississinewa (15-3-1), which beat Eastbrook 3-1 Wednesday, on its home field at 2 p.m. Saturday. They eliminated the Indians 2-1 in last season’s sectional semifinal.

Christman gave the Patriots problems in the first half. He saved nine of Jay County’s 10 shots on goal to keep the Trojans (3-13-1) in the game.

“Teams that we’ve encountered, they'll get tons of shots off … but he is kind of a wall back there,” NCHS coach Tyron Rainer said. “We feel like we've got the best goalkeeper when we go in every match. He keeps us in games.”

After only taking one shot in the first half, the Trojans scored on their second shot. Nine minutes into the second half, Caden Johnson connected with Isaac Madden on a through ball. The shot that Madden took hit off of keeper Kaleb Coppock, but continued rolling toward the right post before caroming off of it and in.

After the goal, the Patriots came out with a passion to regain the lead and put the game away.

“We knew that was a mistake and we needed to fix it right away,” Patriots coach Bobby Ruiz said.

“I told them, ‘You know we can beat them so let’s go and do it. Go after them and let’s go get them.’ That’s what they did.”

Jay County only needed 1:36 to respond. Dylan Marentes was able to move the ball up to Levi Muhlenkamp on the left side of the pitch. After controlling the ball, he beat Ezra Hood up the sideline before Christman came out of the goal to challenge him.

Muhlenkamp sent the ball that ricocheted off of the Trojans’ keeper into the goal for the go-ahead score with 28:24 remaining.

“The goalie left a good amount of space between the goalpost and him,” Muhlenkamp said. “I was just able to fit it in there. … It went off his leg and it went in. …

“We were getting opportunities and we have to keep our heads up whenever we’re getting them.”

The Trojans tried to quickly answer back, but a shot by Owen Barrett was taken out of the air by Coppock.

Jay County upped the offensive pressure even further to add some insurance. The lead was extended to 3-1 on a shot by Marentes with 23:21 left in the match. He got the shot off after he put his ball handling skills on display, weaving through multiple New Castle defenders to take a shot from 20 yards out.

Cayden Buckland scored the first goal of the game after Christman saved a Marentes shot from the right corner. The Mississinewa goalie was unable to corral the ball and Buckland crashed hard to sent it into the net and give the Patriots a lead less than 15 minutes into the game.

“I knew we had to follow the shot because we weren't really following shots and when he missed I just saw it right from my feet and had to put it in,” Buckland said. “That was a little bit of a spark. It gave us the confidence and the momentum to carry through the game.”

Jay County had significantly more looks at the goal than the Trojans did. The Patriots ended up taking 34 shots in the game (19 on goal), while New Castle only managed four with three of them on the goal.

Christman finished with 16 saves.

While Ruiz recognized the talent of Christman, he would’ve liked to see a couple more balls find the back of the net and hopes to improve in the championship game.

“Ten percent is pretty low,” Ruiz said of his team’s shooting percentage. “We should have had another three or four goals. They were there but we didn’t put them in the right spot. …

“We are going to face a great team. We have to come out with all of what we have. We will leave every single drop of blood on the field. If we can’t win it, it will be against our will.”