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Pinecrest vs Millbrook Monday, September 8th, 2003 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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Pinecrest vs Millbrook Monday, September 8th, 2003 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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| A pair of goals in the last 10 minutes by Raleigh Millbrook enabled last year's 4-A runner-up to slip by Pinecrest 3-1 in boys' soccer action at John Williams Field Monday night. Just three minutes before the go-ahead goal by the Wildcats, the Patriots tied the game at 1-1 on a penalty kick by Scott Martin. The Patriots, now 2-4-2, complete their nine-match pre-conference schedule with a game at 10th-ranked Lee County on Thursday. The junior varsity match begins at 5 p.m. folllowed by the varsity at 7 p.m. Mid-Southeastern Conference play begins at Scotland County next Monday. Pinecrest coach Larry Martin said that he does not regret putting together a schedule that includes seven teams ranked in the state coaches poll for at least one of the weeks this season. "I guess our worst enemy is my schedule making," he said. "I'll match our schedule with anybody's in the state. It's tough, you have a squad that's working hard and playing well, and we're sitting at 2-4-2. But in the long run, I think it will pay off." The varsity game continued an evening of quality high school soccer that began with the Patriot jayvee team's 2-1 victory over the Wildcats. Tommy Ransdell headed home the game-winner off a cross by Greg Pattis with 24 minutes left in the match. Logan Creque scored the other goal on a penalty kick for the now 5-1-1 Patriots. In the varsity game, the visitors from the Cap 6 Conference (3-1-2) started and finished for a rush. In the fifth minute, the Wildcats Eric Eaton slipped a ball between a couple of Patriot defenders and Evan Brown finished it for a 1-0 lead. "They (Pinecrest) ran the flat-back four and we've seen that a few times already this year," said Millbrook coach Danny Wilkins. "It's funny, against Fuquay-Varina we broke it early kind of like this." Shortly after the visitors produced several more opportunities of that kind, the Patriot defense restored order. "They came at us hard early with a lot of guys and kind of caught us in transition," Martin said. "I think we started to pick that up and recognized what we had to do quickly. After that we started sealing them down." "It was a good game. If I was up in the stands watching, I would have enjoyed it." The home team created more and more dangerous opportunities as the match went on. In the 43rd minute, Patriot midfielder Neil Perez penetrated the penalty area only to have his pass across the goalmouth intercepted and cleared. In quick succession, a corner kick by Mike Hinerth was headed over the goal by Martin and a free kick by Jonathan Gribben flew high. A couple of outstanding saves by Pinecrest goalkeeper Jonathan Shute preceded the tying goal. In the 66th minute, Perez lofted a high ball into the penalty area toward Martin. As the senior went up for the header, he was knocked to the turf by a Millbrook defender. Martin tucked the penalty kick in the left corner of the net to deadlock the match at 1-1. Millbrook struck quickly to take the lead. Forward Adam Dailey won a ball near midfield with nothing but open highway between him and Shute. The Patriot goalkeeper never had a chance as Dailey struck the ball perfectly from about 20 yards away, sending it into the left corner of the goal. Perez and Martin just missed the connection on a cross and header before a Patriot handball in the penalty area led to another goal by Evan Brown. At the end of the match, Wilkins made a point of talking to midfielder Perez who was a thorn in the side of the Wildcats all night long. "Number three (Perez) was winning, collecting and creating a lot of opportunities for them," the coach said. "He was working hard from one side of the field to the other. I think he was their best player in this game." Millbrook, which plays Lee County tonight, lost 2-1 to Mount Tabor in overtime in last year's 4-A title game. Sanderson and Wakefield from the Cap 6 are currently ranked third and ninth. Millbrook is in the second 10. Dailey said that he thought his team got a little complacent after taking the early lead. "They played well," he said of Pinecrest. "They're like the Cap 6 teams, they played really competetitive." The Patriots will take a 35-game unbeaten streak in conference play into next week's match at Scotland. The eight-game ledger for the Patriots this year includes a pair of ties and a pair of 1-0 losses. Martin says that he has learned alot about his team over the last three months. "I told the guys, the story of our season is that we make a couple of mistakes and we miss a couple of opportunities," he said. "But we're getting better each game and we're playing with more cohesion. I'm learning a lot about my team because everybody is getting in and having an opportunity. We just need to solidify a few areas and I think we will be all right." Defender Michael White, who along with Erik Hayworth, Will Carpenter, Mario Stratta and reserves Casey Wylie and Caleb Miles shut down the Wildcats for most of the night after the early goal, echoed his coach's comments. "Once the playoffs come around I think we'll be ready." said the sophomore. "We're playing good ball, we just haven't been putting the wins away. I'm looking forward to the state playoffs. I think we can do some damage there." <-Previous 9-4-03 vs Fayetteville Academy (T, 2-2) 9-11-03 at Lee County (L, 1-2) Next-> |