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Pinecrest vs Seventy-First Wednesday, September 25th, 2002 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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(5-0-1) |
9
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(1-4-0) |
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Pinecrest vs Seventy-First Wednesday, September 25th, 2002 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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(5-0-1) |
9
|
0 |
(1-4-0) |
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| The first 15 minutes of soccer on Sandhills Youth Soccer League Night at Pinecrest High School could have passed for a clinic. The Patriot boys scored five times in that period using crisp one- and two-touch passes, mostly on the ground, to quickly eat up the real estate before finishing a final quality pass. “For an hour in practice yesterday, that’s exactly what we did,” said Pinecrest coach Larry Martin whose team went on to defeat Seventy-First 9-0 Wednesday night. “I had a whistle and every time they touched it more than twice, I gave the ball to the other team. “At points during the season, I wondered if we had the skill to use one- and two-touch passing. They have the skill and it’s just a choice. And when we make the choice we can play good soccer. The speed of the ball breaks teams down.” Pinecrest improved to 5-0-1 in the Mid-Southeastern Conference remaining a half a tick ahead of 4-0-2 Scotland County, a 5-0 winner at Jack Britt Wednesday. The Patriots have a date with the Scots in Laurinburg next Wednesday. The teams played to a 1-1 overtime tie three weeks ago at Pinecrest. The best of the opening five goals was the first. Following a buildup, Jonathan Gribben crossed a ball from the left to Scott Martin in front of the goal. Martin first-timed it to an unmarked Stephen Lacher on his right for the score. A minute later, Gribben received a ball from Joe Burger in the penalty area and outmaneuvered a pair of Falcon defenders making it 2-0. A Burger header off of a Martin corner-kick, a Martin goal on a feed from Burger, and Burger again on a pass from Lacher, and it was 5-0 with only 13 minutes elapsed in the match. The Patriots, now 8-2-2 overall, were not quite as smooth after that. Martin went on to score three goals to go with two assists. The Patriots defense held the Falcons (1-10 overall, 1-4 conference) to two second-half shots. Jonathon Shute, Rashad Gatling, Will Carpenter and Neil Perez combined for the shutout in goal. Martin talked about why he likes to see the ball stay on the ground as much as possible. “Every time the ball goes up in the air, that’s time and space lost,” he said. “Whatever disadvantage you’ve already put the defense in, they have time to recover from by the time the ball comes to the ground and is controlled. So on the floor is the way to go. And that doesn’t mean every now and then you don’t use the air to keep the other team off-balance.” The next three goals came on headers, two by Martin and one by Bret Buckman. David Jannone scored the final goal off an assist from Dustin Burns. A good number of potential future Patriots took advantage of the free admission for SYSL soccer players in uniform. “The reason our program is successful is because we have a great feeder program,” Martin said. “And that’s because a whole lot of people work hard coaching them and developing them. It’s our lifeblood and we really appreciate the help.” Before meeting the Scots again, the Patriots complete the first half of conference play with a game at Douglas Byrd on Monday. Thursday, they entertained Lee Senior in a non-conference clash. <-Previous 9-23-02 vs Westover (W, 12-0) 9-26-02 vs Lee County (W, 1-0) Next-> |