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Pinecrest vs Lumberton Saturday, October 15th, 2005 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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Pinecrest vs Lumberton Saturday, October 15th, 2005 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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| Lumberton boys’ soccer coach Kenny Simmons called the magnitude of his team’s 7-0 loss at Pinecrest Saturday night “really, really disappointing.” Patriot coach Larry Martin was shocked. The match pitting the Patriots, leaders of the Mid-Southeastern Conference, and the Pirates, co-leaders in the Two Rivers Conference, was expected to be a close one. Both teams ended the evening before a large Sandhills Youth Soccer League Night crowd with identical 13-3-1 records. Travis Grasso scored twice and had an assist, while Russell Stewart contributed a goal and an assist to lead the Patriots. Michael White assisted on both Grasso goals. “Lumberton is a real big rival and we always get hyped up to play them,” Stewart, a junior midfielder, said afterward. “This is the best we’ve played this year, offensively and defensively, and Glen (Holmes) played well in goal.” A paid crowd of over 300, plus more than 200 youth soccer players, may have provided some extra inspiration to the Patriots. It took less than a minute for the Pirates’ Kyle Dickerson to test Holmes with a hard shot from the edge of the penalty area, but the rest of the game was pretty much all Pinecrest. Grasso opened the scoring in the 19th minute, running on to a long through ball from White and then beating a trio of defenders before connecting from close range. The Patriots broke the game open with two goals in the last four minutes before halftime. Stewart was tripped in the Pirate penalty area and then converted the penalty kick. In the last minute of the half, Marco Gironda put away a loose ball in front of the Pirate goal for a 3-0 lead. Before the game, a youth soccer player was introduced and took the field along with each of the Patriot and Pirate starters. During halftime, Blackburn, coached by Mike Backman, played Liverpool, coached by Matt Kohut, in an eight-minute match between U8 SYSL boys’ teams. Stewart got a big kick out of the enthusiasm shown by the player that was introduced with him before the game. As soon as he was introduced the youngster sprinted out to the middle of the field at full speed to join the other players. “He was pretty excited,” Stewart said. “It was good to see that. This was pretty neat tonight.” Stewart, the set piece specialist of the Pats, had a hand in a goal in the 57th minute that made it 4-0. With teammate Tommy Ransdell timing a run from the far side of the Pirate penalty box perfectly, Stewart delivered a free kick on the ground from about 35 yards away that Ransdell booted into the net on his first touch. Two minutes later, White covered about 50 yards with a gorgeous cross from the right side that Grasso brought under control in stride before blasting it into the net. Sean McLeod made it 6-0 in the 71st minute with a chip just out of the reach of the charging Pirate goalkeeper. A final goal was scored in the 76th minute when Charlie Davis headed home a cross from G.R. Horton. “I was certainly expecting a much closer game,” said Simmons, whose team picked up a big 3-1 win at Two Rivers’ co-leader Terry Sanford the week before. “Our play wasn’t good and our sportsmanship on the field wasn’t good. We knew they were going to attack our wings pretty good. We didn’t seem organized defensively.” SYSL director Mike Reilly was on hand to enjoy the second straight Saturday night of soccer at Pinecrest before large crowds. His organization aims to support all of the high schools in the county. The SYSL has about 1,000 boys and girls participating on teams this season. Four U8 boys’ teams also participated in abbreviated matches in between halves of the junior varsity match. “The excitement of playing at night in a big stadium is a great experience for the kids,” Reilly said. “Pinecrest plays a good brand of soccer. The kids can see how they spread the field out.” Patriot parents Mark Stewart and Johnny Ransdell helped coordinate the evening’s activities. For Patriot coach Martin the event couldn’t have turned out better. “It was fun to have all the kids here,” he said, “and, gosh, we played well. It was fun to give the kids such a demonstration of good soccer. What we did against a quality Lumberton team was based on quality execution. They didn’t really threaten us, and they have some good offensive weapons on that team.” The Patriot jayvee team defeated the Pirates 3-1. The jayvee and varsity teams played at Jack Britt on Monday. Tonight, the varsity squad entertains Westover at 7 p.m. <-Previous 10-12-05 vs Hoke County (W, 5-0) 10-17-05 at Jack Britt (W, 5-0) Next-> |