Dan Mattock’s shot deflected off a defender and past keeper Kyle Vasser at the 6:45 mark of the second overtime to send the hosts to a 1-0 victory over Clinton CC for their second win in as many days to open the NJCAA Region 3 Division III season.

Barring a schedule change, the Jayhawks won’t return to action until Sept. 7 when they travel to Mohawk Valley CC, but they were more than happy to end the weekend with another victory, even if the game winner wasn’t a thing of beauty.

“It was a terrible shot,” said Mattock, a sophomore from Perth, Western Australia. “It was never going in unless it hit the guy’s knee. We’ve got to have some ‘dirty’ ones, because we didn’t finish the clean ones.”

The Jayhawks ended the game with eight shots on goal and five corner kicks, and sophomore keeper Jakob Moore (Wellington, New Zealand) made six saves, but it wasn’t until Mattock’s “bad” shot that they were all able to celebrate.

Jayhawks’ keeper Jakob Moore makes a save. P-J photo by Scott Kindberg

“(Clinton CC) just packs everything back and makes you try to be patient,” Jamestown CC coach Pat Anderson said. “Young teams often won’t handle that, especially early in the season, but we handled it very well today.”

Still, the Jayhawks received a stern talking-to by Moore at the end of regulation in an effort to motivate them and prevent a golden opportunity from slipping away.

“He has the knack for saying the right thing,” Anderson said of Moore. “He’s not afraid to hold people into account. We get away from (the field) and he’ll be your best friend, but while he’s on the field, he’s the field general, and that’s the way it works. … He knows what he’s talking about, and in the time he’s been here, I don’t think I’ve had to contradict him. When he’s saying something, it’s something that had to be said.

“These are the games we have to win on our home field.”