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#9 Pinecrest vs Douglas Byrd Wednesday, October 27th, 2004 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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(12-1-1) |
13
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(0-14-0) |
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#9 Pinecrest vs Douglas Byrd Wednesday, October 27th, 2004 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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(12-1-1) |
13
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0 |
(0-14-0) |
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| The Pinecrest boys’ soccer team will have to wait more than a week to play again after polishing off Douglas Byrd 13-0 Wednesday in its senior night regular-season finale. The win sewed up the program’s eighth consecutive league title with a record of 12-1-1 in the Mid-Southeastern Conference and 16-3-2 overall. The Patriots receive a bye in the first round of the state 4-A playoffs. They will face the winner of a match between the third seed from the Mideastern Conference and the fourth seed from the Cap Six at home on Saturday, Nov. 6. Just over a minute into Wednesday’s match, Joe Johnson delivered a shot that bounced off the inside of the far post and into the net. With all 10 of the teams’ seniors on the field, goals by Scott Phifer and Andy Tagliareni made it 3-0 by the seventh minute. It became 6-0 at the midway mark of the half after Jordan Hansley put together what had to be the quickest hat trick in team history. Patriot underclassmen replaced all of the seniors at that point, and junior Tommy Ransdell topped that feat by scoring three times in the next nine minutes. Trailing 12-0 at the intermission, a determined Eagle squad led by goalkeeper Chris Caulder held the Patriots to a single goal in the second half. During halftime ceremonies and at the end of the match, the focus was on the Patriot seniors. Except for senior returnees Caleb Miles and Johnson, all of the others moved up from last year’s junior varsity to replenish a team that graduated 14 after making it to the state quarterfinals. Patriot coach Larry Martin sees similarities between this team and the one that finished at 18-6-2 after a 2-1 loss to New Hanover last season. Besides Miles and Johnson, the only others remaining from that squad are juniors Travis Grasso and Michael White. “It’s similar to last year’s team in that we have a lot of guys that are close in ability and play well together,” he said. “We basically rely on each other instead of looking to one person. What’s really neat is that with the limited varsity experience, they’ve pulled together in one short season.” A 4-2-2 start overall put the Patriots one-and-a-half games out of first place in the conference. But they won 12 of their last 13, including must-win league matches over Richmond County and Jack Britt and a 2-1 non-conference win over tough East Chapel Hill. “I think we’ve come together pretty well,” said senior defender Chris Coxen,” especially during the East Chapel Hill game. I think we really showed everyone what we can do as far as our passing and controlling the game.” Senior midfielder Omar Abusamra, like Coxen, a member of last season’s outstanding jayvee squad, pointed out that most of the players know each other going all the way back to recreation soccer in the Sandhills Youth Soccer League. “We weren’t just a rag-tag bunch of jayvees coming up to play varsity,” he said. “We’ve been playing together for a long time. I think we’ve got a good shot in the postseason. I think we can show some people we’re a quality team.” Logan Creque, Travis Frazier and Phifer shared the goalkeeping in the Patriots’ 12th shutout of the season. Also Wednesday, Jack Britt defeated Richmond County 3-0 to finish second in the conference. A number of the Patriot seniors are honor roll students. Among those, Coxen and Abusamra have aspirations for careers in the medical field. Another, Dalon White, wants to pursue a career in microbiology and biomedical science. Andy Tagliareni, also an all-conference wrestler for the Patriots, is interested in a career in engineering. Miles was recently named a semifinalist for a National Merit Scholarship and is also interested in a career in engineering. Marshall McIntosh, a member of the National Society of High School Scholars, hopes to continue his education at UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Chapel Hill or Clemson. Creque, a member of the National Honor Society, and Johnson plan to attend college, but are undecided about where. Hansley, an International Baccalaureate Certificate candidate, hopes to attend N. C. State to study business management. Phifer plans to attend Elon or Western Carolina in the pursuit of a degree in business. Student trainer and honor roll student Felicia Shannon has plans to backpack through Europe and study abroad. <-Previous 10-25-04 at Seventy-First (W, 6-1) 11-5-04 vs. Ashley (Second Round, State Tourn. L 2-3) Next-> |