Jimmies stay unbeaten

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Jamestown College’s Matt Balshaw (17) powers through Hunter Reese of South Dakota Mines during Friday’s game at the Jimmie Soccer Field. John M. Steiner The Sun

Talk about it

The Jimmies unbeaten start to the season continued Friday.

Jamestown College scored once in each half en route to a 2-0 win over South Dakota Mines at the Jimmie Soccer Field.

It wasn’t a flawless performance, but a win’s a win.

“There were areas we showed definite improvement. … Defensively we were a lot more organized,” JC coach Phillip Bohn said. “We had really good bursts of combination play on offense, but it wasn’t consistent enough.

“Overall, there’s bits and pieces here and there in the games, and they’re getting bigger where we’re doing really good things, they’re just not sustained.”

The Jimmies got on the board early as Jade Johnson made it 1-0 in the 12th minute. It was the second goal of the season for the powerful forward out of West Fargo. Jack Humphries got an assist on the play.

“Jade is such a mismatch for teams. We did a good job getting him involved early, but as the game goes on we tend to forget about him,” Bohn said. “It seems like we get bored with it. We get away from going to him even though the opponent is doing nothing different defensively. … That does not make a whole lot of sense.”

It stayed 1-0 deep into the game until the Jimmies got an insurance goal from Austin Dillard, who was playing in just his second game of the season. The goal was his first. Johnson got his team-leading third assist.

Dillard has been nursing an injury, but it was just another example of the Jimmies’ depth as they used almost 20 players in the game.

The Jimmies had several good chances to score, but couldn’t finish.

“We’ve created a lot of good opportunities, but we’re not taking advantage of enough of them. … As we got forward, that’s an area we certainly have to improve,” Bohn said.

Thomas Cooke kept his second clean sheet of the season. The Jimmies outshot the Hardrockers 20-12.

Dakota Wesleyan is up next for Jamestown College as part of a doubleheader here on Sunday. The men play at 2 p.m. with the women’s game to follow. The JC women play today as well, hosting North Central University (Minn.) at noon.

Jamestown College 2, South Dakota Mines 0

Trojans 0 0 — 0

Jimmies 1 1 — 2

Scoring summary

First half

1, JC, Jade Johnson (Jack Humphries), 11:46.

Second half

2, JC, Austin Dillard (Johnson), 74:14.

Keeper saves: Mines, Eric Milbrandt 4-x —4, Cole Smith x-4—4. Jamestown College, Thomas Cooke 1-3—4.

Tags: sports, jimmies, soccer