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Pinecrest vs Northern Durham Saturday, May 13th, 2006 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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Pinecrest vs Northern Durham Saturday, May 13th, 2006 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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| The Pinecrest girls' soccer team went into Friday night's second-round 4-A state playoff match against Northern Durham well motivated. "I didn't want it to be my last game," said Ann Fields, echoing the sentiments of the five Patriot seniors on the team. "Last year as a freshman," Latanya Cain said, "we lost in the second round and it was disappointing. As a sophomore, I wanted the experience of going farther." Cain got the home team started with a goal in the sixth minute. Teammate Molly Lynch made the pass to Cain after a hard won ball at the edge of the visitors' penalty area. Fields sealed the 4-1 Patriot victory in the 78th minute, beating the goalkeeper one-on-one off a cross from Brittney Dishner. The Patriots (19-4-1) will have an opportunity to atone for a 6-3 early-season loss when they entertain Terry Sanford (20-2) in a 7 p.m. third-round match on Wednesday. Also winning second-round games from the upper half of the East Bracket, and potential future opponents of the Patriots, are New Bern and Wilmington Hoggard. The early advantage created by the Cain goal was short-lived. Not much more than a minute later, the domino affect of a Patriot defensive breakdown on the left side put Allison Murray all alone in the penalty box to finish a cross that tied the match at 1-1. "I kind of whiffed the ball and really got mad," Patriot defender Sarah Patnode said. "But I saved the second goal from going in." A high-scoring match seemed to be in the making after Pinecrest took a 2-1 lead in the 15th minute. Kristen Anderson took control of the ball on the left edge of the visitors' penalty box, facing a defender. She faked inside, took a dribble outside, and then launched a hooking shot that nestled into the upper far corner of the goal. Patnode made her save of a potential game-tying header by Melissa McDonald at the open far post in the 29th minute. Just before the half, the Patriots came up empty when a clever pass from Lynch, off a clever run by Cain, led to a shot that was just wide of the goal. Northern Durham's Dana Sroka somehow got within a few feet of the Patriot goal with the ball in the 57th minute, but, under pressure, sent a hard shot well over the bar. On a night that the Patriots enjoyed a 26-to-six advantage in shots, the visitors were very much in the match going into the final 15 minutes. "The only trouble was we weren't finishing as much as we would like," said Cain, who owns the Patriot's single season goal scoring record. "I know I missed too many shots. I was saving them for the third round." Dishner, dangerous as always with her crosses and corner kicks from the right side, launched one of the latter toward Lynch in the 68th minute. On her second touch, Lynch awkwardly chipped a ball that most of the spectators at first thought landed on top of the net. The Patriots got a delayed applause for the goal that made it 3-1. The Patriots came at a visibly tired Northern Durham team in waves the rest of the way. Fields had the run of the middle, feeding the wing players or penetrating for shots, including the late one that put the icing on the cake. It was one of the best performances of a four-year varsity career for the midfielder. "The whole team knew the seniors didn't want it to be their last game," Fields said. "We had a really hard week at practice. Some of the jayvee players were brought up to kind of light a fire under us and make us work harder for our positions. It was a hard week of training and it paid off." In addition to Patnode, defenders Marissa Dotson, Caitlin McArdle and Kristen Capasso helped make it a relatively quiet night for senior goalkeeper Katelyn Burwell. "We definitely have expectations for these state playoffs," Patnode said. Conference champions for the ninth straight year, coach Lorna Martin's Patriots received a first-round bye. Northern Durham defeated South View 3-2 in overtime in its first-round match. The wild-card team from the PAC 6 completes its season with a record of 11-8-1. Among the former players supporting Martin as spectators were Sara Cole, Jordan Howell, Allison Auman, Stephanie Carter, Molly McGahey, Stacy Blanchard, Lora Smith and Lauren Klug. <-Previous 5-5-06 vs Western Guilford (L, 0-4) 5-17-06 vs #11 Terry Sanford (Third Round, State Tourn. W, 4-1) Next-> |