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Pinecrest vs East Chapel Hill Friday, October 24th, 2008 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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| If Friday night's 3-0 victory over East Chapel Hill is any indication, the Pinecrest boys' soccer team is ready for the state playoffs. Late goals by Jack Talton and Thomas Goulden broken open a close match against the visiting Wildcats as the Patriots completed the regular season with a record of 17-2-3. Nikolas Ceraso scored in the first half, and goalkeeper Matt Scott presided over the 11th Patriot shutout of the season. West Johnston (6-12-2), the fifth seed from the Greater Neuse River Athletic Conference, provides the opposition in Wednesday's 7 p.m. home 4-A playoff opener. "This gives us a lot of good motivation for the playoffs and some momentum," Scott said after recording seven saves in spite of a slick ball and the gusty winds that came with the rainy evening. "We'll take the good things from this and build on them." The Wildcats, coached by former Pinecrest player Joe Burger, put heavy pressure on Scott and the Patriot defense for about the first 10 minutes of the match. Then the home team began swinging the ball around for probes from the left flank by Goulden. In the 26th minute, Goulden crossed a ball into the Wildcat penalty box toward the well defended Ceraso. The ball fell to the ground in front of the Patriot midfielder and he blasted it into the net. The Patriots maintained the 1-0 advantage until halftime, but barely. In the 35th minute, Scott knocked down a hard shot by the Cats' Travis Zyczkiewicz, and then grabbed the rebound while lying on his back. With the intensified wind in their faces in the second half, the Patriots nevertheless enjoyed an advantage in the run of play. But they were unable to increase their advantage until the 73rd minute when Dalton got on the end of a ball served in front of the Wildcat goal by Max Brenner, making it 2-0. "It was such a relief," Scott said of the breathing room the second goal allowed. "It's definitely tough to catch the ball in these kinds of conditions. But our defense really stepped up and didn't allow many hard shots on goal. It made my day a lot easier." With about two minutes left to play, the slick ball caused a muff by the Wildcat goalkeeper on a long shot by Eric Parziale. Goulden pounced on it for the final goal of the evening. Pinecrest coach Larry Martin and the Wildcats' Burger had the same thing in mind when the schedule was made before the season -- a tough match to get their teams' ready for the playoffs. "That's exactly what we wanted," Martin said. "I thought it was a highly contested game. We got some breaks and I'm not sure the 3-0 score totally reflects the nature of the game. "Getting a win puts a smile on your face and gets you ready for the playoffs." East Chapel ended the regular season at 10-9-1. It faces a first-round match at J.H. Rose on Tuesday. "They took advantage of their opportunities better than we did," said Burger, in his second year as the head coach of the Wildcats. "I'm excited about the prospect of winning a couple of games in the playoffs." The Patriots are a first seed after finishing at 12-0 in the Mid-Southeastern Conference. This is the 14th year in a row they qualified for the postseason. Parziale and the other veterans will be trying to improve on last year when Fuquay-Varina knocked them out in the first round. "You have to take it one game at a time," the senior defender said. "We've got to take every thought out of our mind and focus on that. We can't look too far ahead like we did last year." In the junior varsity match, goals by Dane Nelson and Gray Anderson in the final eight minutes gave the Pinecrest Green a 2-1 comeback victory over East Chapel Hill.
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