Minot tops Jays

• Lining Up the Kick

Jamestown High School’s Carly Nelson lines up to kick the ball during West Region soccer action at Rotary Field. (John M. Steiner / The Sun)

Talk about it

In search of their first goal of the new season a bit of misfortune stung the Jamestown Blue Jay girls’ soccer team on a rainy Thursday evening at Rotary Field.

Hosting the visiting Minot Majettes, a penalty kick off the foot of Jamestown junior forward Abby Wanzek got past Minot senior goalkeeper MaKayla Sandvold in the first half, but the ball ricocheted off the crossbar to keep the Blue Jays off the scoreboard.

The PK shot was set up when Jamestown senior midfielder Carly Nelson was tripped on her way to the net.

“From my angle, I thought it was in,” JHS coach Ryan Kleinknecht said of Wanzek’s boot. “But the girls were very excited about getting that shot and getting that chance.”

The Majettes — who are currently rolling — went on to win the match 6-0, but if the Blue Jays can keep on playing the way they did over the first 40 minutes on Thursday, Kleinknecht said only good things can come of it.

Jamestown trailed just 2-0 at the half.

“The first half was the best we’ve played all season,” Kleinknecht said. “We looked great, composed. We were passing the ball well, worked the ball well. We had are two shots (of the match) in the first half, and from there it just kind of went downhill.”

Minot came out of the gates in the second half on fire. Sophomore Paige Melby and senior Emily Christensen teamed up for back-to-back goals in the first five minutes to put the Majettes up 4-0.

Minot High sent 22 shots at Jamestown junior goalkeeper Carissa Finck, who picked up 16 saves on the night. It was Minot’s (4-0) third shutout of the season.

The Majettes were also coming off a big 3-2 victory over Bismarck Century in Minot on Tuesday.

Jamestown fell to 0-5 on the season. The Blue Jays will be at the Bismarck Community Bowl on Saturday, where they’ll be facing the Bismarck High School Demons.

“We need to pick up our pace in practice a little bit,” Kleinknecht said. “Our second half is killing us. We’re in the game, 1, 2, 3-0 at halftime, and we need to figure out something in the second half.”

Minot 6, Jamestown 0

MHS 2 4 — 6

JHS 0 0 — 0

Scoring

First half

1, MHS, Theandra Blada, 16:30; 2, MHS, Sydnee Brey (Bailey Bachman-Williams), 35:39.

Second half

3, MHS, Paige Melby, 42:58; 4, Emily Christensen, 44:28; 5, McKenna Hodenfield (Melby), 51:00; 6, Teasha Hughes (Christensen), 66:29.

Goalkeeper saves: MHS, Makayla Sandvold 1; JHS, Carissa Finck 16.

Records: Minot 4-0; Jamestown 0-5.

Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at mikes@jamestownsun.com

Tags: jays, sports, soccer, prep