Super seven

Former coach Giles Laux had a tradition of getting the Patriots T-shirts for winning the Allen County Athletic Conference championship.

He would purchase them with the confidence that his team would pull out the victory so he can hand them out postgame, even if it risked wasting money should they not claim the title.

While Kendra Muhlenkamp didn’t have to worry about her team being conference champs, she was able to bring back the T-shirt tradition.

The Jay County High School girls soccer team pulled off the first 7-0 season in ACAC history by beating the Heritage Patriots 4-0 on Saturday and on Sunday it drew host Yorktown in the in the IHSAA Class 2A Sectional 24 opener.

Jay County (9-4-1, 7-0 ACAC) had already swept Woodlan and South Adams, beat Heritage once and took down Southern Wells, a first-year program. With the addition of Southern Wells, the Patriots had a seventh conference game, but still managed to pull off a perfect record to claim their second consecutive title.

“I said, ‘You guys have one the most games (in a season) in ACAC history for girls soccer,’” Muhlenkamp said. “It was awesome. I’m super proud of them. I’m blessed to be their coach and I’m really excited for the sectional run that we’re going to go on in a couple of weeks.”

While Jay County controlled possession and had a plethora of good looks, they couldn’t get the ball in the net. Nearly every shot JCHS took in the first 32 minutes were wide of the goal or within Molly Krey’s wingspan.

It took a defender to get the job done for Jay County.

The home Patriots were awarded a corner kick late in the first half, and Muhlenkamp decided that Tessa Frazee, who played on the back line, would come up and take the kick.

“I’ve been working on it a lot in practice and was confident in myself that I could do it for my team,” Frazee said.

The junior sent the ball toward the back end of the goal near both Finley Hatzell and London Lloyd.

Both went up for the ball, but it cleared Hatzell and ricochetted off Lloyd, who moved directly behind the senior, and bounced twice to cross the plane of the goal at the 7-minute, 41-second mark.

“I was behind Fin and she was going to head it,” Lloyd said. “I thought she was going to, but it went over her head and I actually hit it with my arms, so it really shouldn’t have counted, but they didn’t see it, so a win’s a win.”

A little over four minutes later, Frazee got another opportunity, this time from the left side. She tried to curve the ball toward the goal, but it didn’t cut back as much, winding up on the head of Aixa Lopez. After the ball hit Lopez’s head, Bailey White accidentally committed a handball violation, giving Lopez a penalty kick that she netted in the bottom right corner.

“On that first one, I saw London and I knew that she could get it in and get a good touch on the ball,” Frazee said. “The second one kinda went a little bit further out than I wanted it to because that side I can normally curve it in. But I still got it in and Aixa got it. Something got called and we got lucky on that one.”

Jay County found some more success in the open field in the second half.

The first goal came with 24:26 remaining in the match as Lopez sent a through ball forward 20 yards to Lloyd.

    Finley Hatzell of the JCHS girls soccer team gets a high touch on the ball during the Patriots’ 4-0 victory over Heritage on Saturday. The Patriots controlled possession of the ball the entire match, only allowing Heritage to get one look at the goal midway through the second half. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)
  

“Me and Aixa always have good chemistry,” Lloyd said. “We both see the field and always connect really well. … The love that we have for the game and each other just pushes (the team) through. You’re out here and we hear the other team yelling at each other, but we’re out here hyping each other up and never disencouraging each other and that really helps us build each other up and play better.”

Lloyd paid the favor back with four minutes to go. Lopez sent a through ball for Lloyd on the left side of the box but instead of trying to beat two defenders, turned and hit a crashing Lopez for the score in the bottom left corner.

The midfielders kept the ball away from Jay County’s half for a majority of the game. Heritage (7-4-2, 1-3 ACAC) ended with just one shot on the goal as America Garcia sent a chip shot right at Maleah Parsons.

After securing the win, Muhlenkamp had the opportunity to take the girls behind the bench to meet some of her former teammates, including former coach Renee Laux, and hand out the champion  T-shirts.

“Coach Laux was coach when I was in high school, and he recently passed away last year,” Muhlenkamp said. “I though, ‘Man, how can I honor this guy, who meant a lot to a lot of individuals?’ …

“His thing was the ACAC thing with the shirts. He was always super confident in us because if we didn’t win we wouldn’t get the shirts. For this, I knew we got ACAC champs no matter what, but there was some meaning in that he trusted us and we put in the work when we needed to.”

One day after the victory, the Patriots learned their sectional draw, as they will face host and defending champ  Yorktown on Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. Jay County recently played the Tigers in a match that ended in a 1-1 draw.

The winner will go on to face a one-loss Delta squad in the second semifinal on Oct. 9. Delta previously took down the Patriots 7-0.

On the other side of the bracket, New Castle and Mississinewa will duke it out for a chance at playing in the Oct. 11 championship game at 7 p.m.