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Pinecrest vs #8 Apex Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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Pinecrest vs #8 Apex Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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| The person that played the best in the soccer game at Pinecrest Thursday night was feeling the worst at the end. On a night that visiting Apex took 24 shots to one for the Patriots, Pinecrest goalkeeper Katelyn Burwell was the main reason the match was scoreless well into the second half. She denied Cougar advances with diving saves, won several one-on-one confrontations and flicked one shot over the bar before Lauren Cozzarelli broke the deadlock with a tap-in goal near an undefended far post in the 56th minute. A pair of goals in the last five minutes against a tired band of Patriot defenders made the final score 4-0. “What Katelyn showed today was Division I college goalkeeping,” Pinecrest assistant coach Hector Cuevas said afterward. “It wasn’t only the saves, but her position and making decisions. “She kept us in the game in the first half and then it was all her in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second.” Neither team got as much as a whiff of the other’s goal until the Cougars’ Sarah Jackyra penetrated the Patriot penalty area in the 25th minute and sent a shot just wide of the far post. Burwell’s first save, an easy one, came a minute later on another attempt by Jackyra. Jackyra, who took 10 shots overall in the match, and the other Cougar forward, Sydney Reed, each had a first-half attempt find the top bar. By halftime, Burwell had stopped Reed with a diving save off a header, knocked away a blast from close range and dispossessed her in the box. The closest the Patriots got to the Cougar goal was in the 29th minute when Latanya Cain received a ball from Ann Fields and took it to the left edge of the penalty box before being turned away. Burwell recorded five of her 12 saves and the Patriots survived 11 shots and six corner kicks in the first half. “At halftime we told the team — don’t put this all on Katelyn’s shoulders,” Pinecrest head coach Lorna Martin said. “She had some terrific saves in the first half.” Leading up to the first goal, the Cougars continued connecting with an open Jackyra along the right side. She would most often make a move toward the end line before cutting back and unloading a left-footed shot. “I wasn’t on my game tonight, I guess,” she said of the misses. “I kept hitting them wide. They (Pinecrest) were condensing the field a lot trying to catch us off sides. The midfield kept playing balls over the top and I just kept running on to them. They always know where I’m going to make those runs.” On the first goal, Burwell was trying to deal with a one-on-one predicament near the right post when one of the Cougars slipped a ball across the goal mouth to the unattended Cozzarelli. The Patriots threatened a moment later when Cain sent a ball through to teammate Molly Lynch, but the Patriot forward was unable to get off a shot. The only chink in Burwell’s armor came in the 63rd minute when Jackyra poked a ball into the net that was almost in her grasp. Before the deflating goals near the end, Cain flew through about 30 yards of traffic with the ball before having it taken off her foot by goalkeeper Andrea D’Andreti. A final minute shot by the sophomore, the Patriots’ first, was kept out of the net by a defender. The constant pressure on the Patriot end was a function of Pinecrest’s inability to maintain possession and mount an attack, putting almost all of the pressure on the defenders. “I’m proud of their effort,” Martin said. “We don’t have the same depth we’ve had in past years. The girls on the field played most of the game because of the quality of the opponent. They were tired and worn out.” Burwell, whose shutout on Monday against Southern Lee was the 48th of her career, appeared to be the most disconsolate of the Patriots as Martin and Cuevas talked to them afterwards. Later, she agreed the experience might be beneficial down the line. “When you play good, quality teams like that,” she said, “it brings out the best in you.” Pinecrest, now 1-1, opens Mid-Southeastern Conference play with a 7 p.m. match at Westover on Tuesday. Apex, ranked ninth in the state 4-A preseason poll, improved to 2-1. <-Previous 2-27-06 vs Southern Lee (W, 6-0) 3-7-06 at Westover (W, 15-1) Next-> |