Two minutes to win it

Despite being banged up, the Patriots’ defense played strong for 78 minutes.

Two minutes was all the Tigers needed to take control. They scored two goals within a minute and a half of each other and iced the game away with a third score late.

The Jay County High School girls soccer team couldn’t hold out long enough to beat the sectional rival Yorktown Tigers on Thursday, falling 3-1.

The Patriots (4-8-1) were banged up in the game, forcing players to move around and fill different roles in the lineup. They were without exchange student Naroa Zugasti Goicoechea, Elie Wendel missed a large chunk of the second half and could be seen limping at times and goalie Angel Clairday was forced to leave the game with an injury after a collision with Yorktown’s Nina Fischer.

“Our team has really had to adjust a lot this year,” JCHS coach Kendra Muhlenkamp said. “It’s just putting people into places that is going to save us for five minutes and then rotating it out.”

A prime example of a player who filled that role was Jayla Huelskamp. She ended up playing everywhere from forward to middle and back on defense. She was part of the defensive crew with Wendel, Ariel Beiswanger, Emma Hatzell, Tessa Frazee and Clairday in the goal that held the Tigers scoreless in the first half.

“We just recently kind of been doing a four line defense back,” Kendra Muhlenkamp said. “We’ve been switched to a 4-3-3 for the last four games. I would call it the most basic soccer formations. With everyone having to play different spots, it gets really confusing for them if we do anything else.”

That core held strong for the first 50 minutes of the match, finding a way to disrupt the Tigers and erase any advantage they had.

With 29:46 left in the second half Yorktown (8-4-1) broke through. Left stranded 18-yards from the goal, Fischer took a shot that found its way past a defender and bounced into the lower left corner of the net. Harper Mitchell assisted the play.

Just 86 seconds later, Michell found herself in a similar situation at near the top of the box, just left of the center of the field, when she kicked the ball past a pair of Jay County defenders for another goal to the lower left corner.

“I thought we moved the ball well,” Yorktown coach Beverly Tanner said. “I thought we deserved to get one in finally, because we've been moving the ball really well as a team, knocking it around, finding feet. So, it was coming.”

Molly Muhlenkamp scored the only goal for the Patriots with just over six minutes left to cut the deficit to 2-1. Morgan DeHoff assisted the play when she controlled the ball in the midfield and took a hard turn to get up the left side of the field before passing ahead. Molly Muhlenkamp found a way to catch up to it, dribbled it once and put it into the bottom left half of the goal.

The Tigers scored a third time after Molly Muhlenkamp replaced Clairday in the goal. Yorktown created a fast break when Mitchell passed the ball to Kylie Patton and received a quick pass back for a through ball. Mitchell finished off the play for her second goal with 3:08 remaining.

Jay County struggled to find the net as Yorktown goalie Lilly Kleinschmidt finished with 11 saves.

“A lot of the struggles were that we were sending it right to the goalie, rather than choosing a corner,” Molly Muhlenkamp said. “(We) just need to keep our eyes up and get better touches on it quicker and sooner.”

A big momentum shift in favor of the Tigers occurred at the 14:20 mark in the second half.  DeHoff had the ball in the right corner near Yorktown’s goal. She crossed it to Huelskamp, who hit it off her body towards the right post of the goal. After the post, it ricocheted off Kleinschmidt and rolled to the open goal. In a mad dash to the ball, Yorktown’s Hayley Reece beat Heulskamp, sending it toward midfield and keeping it a two-score game.

“That was big,” Tanner said. “That could be a 2-2 game. It was a big save. I was excited.”

Despite the loss, Kendra Muhlenkamp saw the game as a positive development for her team, as it competed with its sectional foe for most of the match. Jay County already beat sectional rival Delta 4-2, while Yorktown tied with Hamilton Heights 1-1 and took down both Centerville and New Castle 9-0.

“I told the girls huddle up at the end to keep their heads up,” she said. “After tonight, it really shows sectionals I believe is anyone's game. … Going into sectionals, knowing that everyone we play (is) beatable is really reassuring. And I hope the girls can get really excited about that.”