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Pinecrest vs J.H. Rose Saturday, November 5th, 2005 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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Pinecrest vs J.H. Rose Saturday, November 5th, 2005 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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| The scoreboard clock showed 0:00 left in the first half as a ball struck by Pinecrest’s Tommy Ransdell found the net. It stood up as the first goal in Saturday night’s second-round state 4-A soccer playoff match at home against J.H. Rose of Greenville. The Patriots (20-3-1) rose to a level of energy in the second half the Rampants (15-4-2) could not match and went on to a 3-0 home victory. They are scheduled to entertain Green Hope (13-6-3) in a third-round contest tonight at 7:30 p.m. The other two Patriot goals came on penalty kicks by Russell Stewart and Michael White. “I don’t know if it was the first goal that demoralized them or if they just ran out of steam,” White said, harking to a difficult first half. “I thought we pretty much controlled the second half. They didn’t have as many dangerous opportunities as they had early in the game.” There could have been as little as a millisecond or even a nanosecond separating the teams from a scoreless half for all anyone knows. The scoring sequence began with the Patriots’ Brandon Zoellner taking possession of the ball on the right side near midfield with about 13 seconds remaining. Zoellner lofted a cross toward Travis Grasso near the left edge of the Rampant penalty box. Several seconds ticked away as Grasso jockeyed with a couple of defenders, searching for an opening to release a shot. “I remember they stopped playing the ball,” Grasso said later. “I think they were looking at the clock and not paying attention and got caught off guard. I got the quick shot off and Tommy did a good job of following it up. I never had that happen before.” Grasso delivered a worm burner that skidded along the turf right at goalkeeper Kenny Jones. It handcuffed him and glanced off his glove into the path of Ransdell, who finished it at the far post. Two of the three officials immediately signaled the goal was good. Observers on the field heard the half time horn go off as the ball hit the net. The Rampants threatened several times early by getting behind the Patriot defense. In the 11th minute, Adrian Daniels crossed a ball that teammate Chris Cook ran on to and rocketed off the far post. In the 21st minute, direct kick specialist Stephen Pfleger lofted another ball into the Patriot penalty area. Daniels controlled it in an onside position with the far side of the goal wide open in front of him. His shot from 12 yards away went wide. “We had to get back faster and get more people back to cover,” said Patriot defender Karl Ainslie of the early trouble. With about 10 minutes left in the half, a Grasso corner kick led to a spectacular series of volleys all blocked or headed away by Rampant defenders. After Ransdell’s goal, Patriot coach Larry Martin went into the second half pretty certain about one aspect of his team’s game. “I believe this and I’ve believed it all year long,” he said. “We just get better as we go into the second half. The other team can make that a relative thing, but we are going to get stronger.” Five minutes into the second half, Grasso received a pass from White and was taken down in the penalty box. Russell Stewart converted the penalty kick, making it 2-0. A visibly deflated Rose squad produced few scoring chances after that as Ainslie, Charlie Davis, Jordan Howlett, Silas Cole and White took care of things in the back. “We just had to play strong defense after that and not worry about scoring,” Ainslie said. The other penalty kick goal by White was scored with about five minutes to play. Matt Sessoms was the Patriot taken down to create the penalty kick opportunity. The match ended in a flurry of yellow cards and a red that went to one of the Rampants. “I thought they did some things that worked against them a little bit,” Martin said of the Coastal Conference squad. “Earlier, they were doing a lot of great things.” The Patriots took 13 shots to nine for the visitors. The first-half shot by Cook that glanced off the right post was the only Rampant shot on goal. Patriot goalkeeper Glen Holmes was credited with his 13th shutout of the season. Green Hope, a wild card entry from the Tri-Seven Conference, advanced by defeating Jack Britt 3-0 in the first round and Terry Sanford 2-0 in the second. <-Previous 10-27-05 at East Chapel Hill (W, 2-1) 11-9-05 vs Green Hope (Third Round, State Tourn. L, 0-2) Next-> |