Patriots will face Oak Hill in opener

CONNERSVILLE — The Patriots couldn’t take down the Spartans, but now they know they’ll need to gear up for the Golden Eagles.

The Jay County High School boys soccer team fell to the Connersville Spartans 1-0 on Saturday before learning it will face the Oak Hill Golden Eagles in the opening round of the IHSAA Sectional 23 tournament hosted by Mississinewa on Oct. 7.

The Patriots (5-8-1) gave up the sole goal of the game to Connersville (7-7-1) in the final minutes of the second half. Peyton Yowell made five saves in the loss.

JCHS will start with Oak Hill (7-5-3) and a victory would pit it against the winner of host Mississinewa and Yorktown. (Jay County previously fell to the Tigers 3-2.)

Should the Patriots come out the semifinal on Oct. 8 victorious, they would see either Delta, who had a first-round bye, Blackford or Eastbrook in the championship game.

The Patriots are the defending champions after beating Eastbrook in penalty kicks a season ago.

Jay draws Tribe

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Jay County’s boys tennis team drew the Union City Indians for the IHSAA Sectional 53 opener on Oct. 1 and dropped a pair of matches at Eastern Hancock on Saturday.

The Patriots (13-7) fell to Frankton 4-1 in the opener. Henry Dirksen had the lone victory by beating Ashton Brobson 6-4, 6-4 at the No. 2 singles position.

Paul Dirksen lost the No. 1 singles match in three sets to Eli Coxe 2-6, 6-4, 10-8. Gabe Overton and Brock Wasson also tested Davis Blockson and Jack Fettig, but ultimately fell in the No. 2 doubles match 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.

JCHS fell to Eastern Hancock 5-0.

Henry Dirksen played the closest match, but was still defeated by Luke Fletcher 6-4, 6-1.

The Patriots have previously swept Union City. A win over the Indians would secure the Patriots a spot in Thursday's championship match against either Randolph Southern or Winchester, both of which they beat 3-2.

JCHS has won the previous three sectional titles and will look for its first four-peat.

May paces

NEW HAVEN —  The Jay County girls cross country team finished eighth in the AA division at the New Haven Classic on Saturday, while the boys claimed 11th.

The girls totaled 184 points, while West Noble’s 69 topped the 12-team field. Oak Hill scored 59 points to top the other 12 teams, while the Patriots had 318.

Ava May continued her strong season with a time of 21 minutes, 57.20 seconds to place 21st. Brooklynn Byrum trailed behind to earn 33rd with a 22:48.90.

Other scores came from Jessie Homan (43rd – 23:27.00), Paityn Wendel (49th – 23:54.40) and Alexis Sibray (50th – 23:56.20).

Max Klopfenstein paced the boys with a time of 18:51.70 to place 38th. The other four JCHS scores came from Grant Glentzer (61st – 19:43.20), Alex Rivers (81st – 20:27.20), Ethan Powers (112th – 22:31.10) and John Cook (128th – 24:56.70).

Schmiesing leads

MONROEVILLE — The Jay County volleyball team went 1-2 at the Allen County Athletic Conference tournament hosted by Heritage on Saturday.

JCHS (14-8) beat Adams Central (11-12) in the opening match of the day 25-21, 25-12. Brenna Schmiesing led with six kills, while Elizabeth Barnett, Hallie Schwieterman and Paisley Fugiett all had five.

That result flipped as the Patriots fell to South Adams (18-6) in the second match 25-11, 25-12. Schmiesing accounted for five points with three blocks and two kills, while Schwieterman had a team-high four kills.

Jay County fell to the host Patriots (19-5) in the final match of the day 18-25, 25-23, 15-8. Schwieterman again led the way by putting eight balls down, while Schmiesing sent four back at the net.

Paisley Fugiett led JCHS with 48 assists over the three matches. Lani Muhlenkamp’s 32 digs ended up as a team-high throughout the day.

The Patriots still have a chance to win the ACAC title outright after a 4-0 start in conference play. They will face Southern Wells tonight before Thursday’s match against Heritage that could decide the conference champion.