 |
#8 Pinecrest vs Ashley Friday, November 5th, 2004 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
 |
||||
|
|
2
|
3 |
|
|||
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
#8 Pinecrest vs Ashley Friday, November 5th, 2004 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
|
||||
|
|
2
|
3 |
|
|||
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
| Late in the second half of Friday night’s boys’ soccer match between Pinecrest and Wilmington Ashley the score was tied at 2-2. Talk of the possibility of the second-round state 4-A playoff match being decided by overtime periods or even a penalty kick shootout was in the air. But with 10 minutes left in regulation, the visitor’s Brett King pounc-ed on a ball that rolled around in front of the Patriot goal for too long and blasted it into the net to give the visitors a 3-2 victory. The Patriots, the eighth-ranked 4-A team in the state and Mid-Southeastern Conference champion, finished the season with a record of 16-4-2. They got goals from G.R. Horton and Travis Grasso to overcome a 2-0 deficit. The Screaming Eagles, 9-6-2, advance to the third round to play the winner of Saturday’s match between Wilmington Hoggard and Terry Sanford. With the second half being played at a frenetic pace, Patriot coach Larry Martin was not one of those seeing overtime in the cards. “I told my assistant coaches,” he said, “ this isn’t going to overtime or penalty kicks. Somebody is going to score because the game is so wide open.” In a game in which both teams scored their goals largely by capitalizing on the other’s mistakes, it was all Ashley at the start. In the second minute, Eagles’ freshman forward Shawn Guderian made it all the way into the penalty area, but his shot was knocked away by Patriot goalkeeper Travis Frazier. On the ensuing corner kick, Frazier came up big again in tipping a dangerous ball away. But moments later, a turnover in the Patriot defensive end was swiftly taken goalward by Eagles’ midfielder Jerry Knoll, who found the net in putting the visitors ahead 1-0. The home team had managed only a couple of probes from long range by sweeper Michael White when the lightning-quick Guderian picked a Patriot pocket and took it in for a 2-0 lead in the 30th minute. “I thought we started a little slow and were a little unsteady in the beginning,” Martin said. “I thought we dominated the last 15 minutes of the first half. They knew we were coming. Our goal reflected the pressure we were putting on them.” Five minutes before the intermission, the Patriots’ Caleb Miles, a force throughout, carried the ball deep into the Ashley penalty box. The ball was knocked away before he could get off a shot, but Horton ran on to the weak clearance and deposited the ball high into the net from about 20 yards away, making it 2-1. For most of the second half, both teams disdained the formality of an offensive buildup and tried to beat each other in transition. In the 47th minute, a low corner kick from the right by the Patriots’ Jordan Hansley somehow made it through traffic to teammate Travis Grasso about 15 yards in front of the goal. Ashley goalkeeper T.J. Ventrice had no chance as the junior powered the equalizer into the net with his left foot. The next 20 minutes produced plenty of chances for both sides. At the 65-minute mark, Miles worked his way down the right side of the Ashley penalty box. He turned inside along the end line and sent a ball past Ventrice to the other side, but no one was there to finish it. The game winner a few minutes later came off a similar cross from an Ashley attack. A number of players had a swing at the ball in front of the goal before the sophomore King blasted it home. The Patriots best last chance came with about two minutes left in the match. Tommy Ransdell received a throw-in just inside the Ashley penalty box. He half-volleyed it over his head to Grasso for an awkward shot-attempt that sailed above the bar. Afterwards, Ashley coach Giles Roberts talked about his young forwards (King and Guderian) who helped produce the first two goals with their defense. “I call them blue-collar strikers,” he said. “They’re not the kind that wait for the ball to come to them. They take the ball away from people and give it to each other.” Martin was misty-eyed at the end of a match that concluded the careers of 10 seniors. In addition to Miles and Hansley, the list includes Chris Coxen, Andy Tagliareni, Omar Abusamra, Scott Phifer, Joe Johnson, Logan Creque, Dalon White and Marshall McIntosh. “I felt that in terms of desire, the kids really played with their hearts,” he said. “I hate to see the seniors go out like this. This is a great group of kids. They had a great season and I’m proud of each and every one of them.” The coach of a Patriot squad that won its eighth conference championship in a row this season said that he would begin thinking about next season the next day. “We’ve got some good players coming behind them and I think the future of soccer at Pinecrest is bright,” he said. “Ashley is a good team and they play in a good conference. That’s one of the advantages they have over us. We’re going to work harder to schedule more tough opponents. I don’t care what our record is, but we’re going to toughen ourselves through good competition.” <-Previous 10-27-04 vs. Douglas Byrd (W, 13-0) |