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#8 Pinecrest vs Lumberton Friday, May 14th, 2004 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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#8 Pinecrest vs Lumberton Friday, May 14th, 2004 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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| A pair of early goals by Lauren Broderick was all the Pinecrest girls’ soccer team needed in a 3-0 second round state 4-A playoff victory at home Friday night. That sets up another home match for the Patriots, now 21-0, on Monday at 7 p.m. against 14-8-2 Wilmington Hoggard, the second seed from the Mideastern Conference. It was the Vikings that ousted the Patriots from the playoffs in the third round last year by a 3-0 score. The Patriots took advantage of some Pirate mistakes and displayed their best form of the match while taking the 2-0 lead in the first eight minutes. After that, they looked a little bit like a team that hadn’t played in a match in nine days. The compacted defense of Pirate coach Kenny Simmon’s squad turned away the Pats until the 77th minute when Anne Brannon finished off a shot attempt by Broderick for the third goal. “The game plan was to pack it in basically and counterattack on them,” Simmons said. “They’re a quality team. They are so athletic, fast and skilled — no weaknesses out there. It will be interesting to see how far they can go.” That reality made what happened in the early minutes difficult for the visitors to overcome. With just a minute-and-a-half gone, some good switching of fields action by the Patriots left Broderick isolated about 18 yards in front of the goal marked by one defender. Katie Fields looped a ball into her from the right side. Broderick turned with it and left-footed the ball into the left corner of the net. Six minutes later, the Pirate goalkeeper muffed a long cross by defender DeAnna Jackson and Broderick was right there to cash it in again. “I thought the first goal was just a poor job of one-versus-one defending and their girl made a great shot,” Simmons said. “And our keeper gave up the second goal. You just can’t give a quality team goals like that and be successful.” The Pirates normally had eight defenders within a 40-yard square in back of the ball. The Patriots tried unsuccessfully to go through it with short passes rather than over and around, as they did in taking the lead. “We even came out with the same defense in the first 15 minutes of the second half,” Simmons said. “We were hoping we could cut it to 2-1 and go from there.” The Pirates (11-12-1) advanced to the second round with a 2-1 victory over Jack Britt. They had one penetration into the Patriot penalty area stopped by an offside call in the first half. They were not able to generate a shot in the match while the Patriots had 30 attempts. The shutout was the 16th of the season, a Patriot team record. After the game, Patriot coach Lorna Martin used some comments made to her by the game officials, who were from the Greensboro area, to make a point to her team. She said that before the game, one of them asked her how many of the Patriot players played on club teams (all 24). The official told her he liked to have an idea of the skill level before he started the game. “At halftime, all three of them came over,” Martin said. “One of them said, ‘Let me tell you this, if you lose it won’t be because of your skill.’ We told the players the same thing. If they lose, it’s going to be because of their head and their heart. I don’t think they quite realize that yet.” The nice Friday night crowd included Patriot soccer alumni Jordan Howell, Emily Carter, Erin Cooper, Nikki Jones, Toni Giangrande and Kelli McGahey. Broderick’s two goals give her 33 for the season, tying the single-season high set by Laura Peters in 1999. Hoggard advanced to the third round by defeating Terry Sanford 4-2. <-Previous 5-5-04 at Douglas Byrd (W, 12-0) 5-17-04 vs Hoggard (Third Round, State Tourn. L, 0-1) Next-> |