Patriots dominate Bruins

Senior Trevin Dunnington is listed as a defender on the Patriots’ roster sheet.

For about 40 minutes on Tuesday, he was just trying to score a goal.

His teammates fed him the ball and held their breath as they watched him fight to find the net.

After five failed attempts, he finally broke through.

A strong start for the Jay County High School boys soccer team in a 8-0 win over the Blackford Bruins allowed for them to mix their lineup around on senior night Tuesday.

Fifteen minutes into the game, the Patriots (7-3-2) had a large enough lead — 3-0 — that coach Bobby Ruiz started to mix the lineup up, putting people into new positions. Around that time, Dunnington was moved up to play as a striker.

“It’s a lot of running,” Dunnington said. “I was pretty tired. I don’t know how Levi (Muhlenkamp) does it. It’s awful.”

He had a couple of opportunities in the first half, but just couldn’t convert as one sailed high and the other two shots were saved by Ryne Clamme.

In the second half, he started in the front as well, looking for his first goal of the season.

Anytime the ball would come to the offensive end, the bench would be calling for their teammates to pass it to Dunnington. His first opportunity came with 26:13 left in the second half. He was on the receiving end of a through ball and took it down the field but missed the goal wide right.

After the shot, Dunnington turned to the bench to say he was struggling to control the ball.

Five minutes later, he had another opportunity after Hugo Gutierrez brought the ball up slowly and kicked it through the defense for Dunnington to track down near the box. His shot was too high.

With just under 14 minutes remaining, Dunnington finally got one. With the ball on the right side, Dunnington crashed to the front of the goal. Blake Collins delivered the ball to Dunnington who was able to touch it through the two defenders and past goalie Max Bonewitt for the first score of his career.

“He passed it to me and I just had a little touch between the two and nailed it right in,” Dunnington said. “It just felt great. I was running everywhere and felt so happy. My teammates were there and it was great.”

Dunnington was able to be put in that position because Jay County was aggressive offensively to begin the game, developing a quick lead.

    Jay County High School junior Cayden Buckland uses his body to shield Blackford’s Sam Barry from the ball on Tuesday. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

They got their first goal less than 10 minutes into the game and developed a 4-0 lead before they were even half way through the first half.

Ruiz wanted to make sure that the Patriots gave Blackford (4-9-1) respect so that it wouldn’t become a trap game.

“I thought, let's start hard. Let's go and get it,” Ruiz said. “Then we can see what the game brings.”

Jay County’s leading scorer, Muhlenkamp, tallied three more goals for a first-half hat trick.

His first goal came on a play during the Patriots went the distance of the field in less than five seconds. Brayden Collins took a free kick from near their own goal, sending the ball to Dylan Marentes, who controlled it in the midfield and then turned it up to Muhlenkamp. From there, he was able to put the ball into the left half of the goal.

He scored the third goal in the half with 25:10 on the clock. Muhlenkamp was waiting on the defensive line for Zander Hudson to poke a through ball for him. He created a fast break and went down for his second score.

With just a minute left in the half, Brendan Runyon found himself with the ball in the right corner. Muhlenkamp was floating around the penalty mark when he received a pass from Runyon and put the ball through for his final score of the game, extending the lead to 6-0.

“They were able just to work it around with each other then they just look up, they'd see me stand on the line,” Muhlenkamp said. “If I was opening for three balls and they would just look for me and they’d pass.”

The remaining goals were scored by Hugo Gutierrez (27:15), Brayden Collins (21:10), Oskar Alart Mateo (4:32) and Blake Collins (5:10 second half).

The Bruins only managed three shots on the goal. Kaleb Coppock manned the goal, sending all three away.

The Patriots have two more regular season games before they square off with Yorktown in the opening round of the sectional tournament on Oct. 2.

“We know we are on the right path because we are improving every game,” Ruiz said. “We are getting to know each other better, and the conditioning is there. … We just need to focus on not making mistakes.”