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#13 Pinecrest vs #11 Terry Sanford Wednesday, May 17th, 2006 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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#13 Pinecrest vs #11 Terry Sanford Wednesday, May 17th, 2006 John Williams Field, Southern Pines, NC |
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| Latanya Cain scored two goals, and the Pinecrest offense had Terry Sanford on its heels throughout Wednesday's one-sided soccer match. But in the aftermath of the Patriot's 4-1 upset victory, the spotlight was on defender Marissa Dotson. Ann Fields opened the scoring for the Patriots and assisted on one of Cain's goals. Molly Lynch also scored for the winners. The milestone win at home advances Pinecrest (20-4-1) to the fourth round of the state 4-A playoffs for the first time in the history of the girls' soccer program. Tonight, coach Lorna Martin's squad tries to keep it going in a 7 p.m. contest at Wilmington Hoggard (17-4-3). Hoggard defeated New Bern 4-3 in overtime on Tuesday. Dotson, normally the Patriot sweeper, was moved up the field to mark the Bulldogs' Rachel Yepez. The LSU-bound senior scored four times and assisted on the other two goals in a 6-3 victory over Pinecrest back in March. Wednesday, her night ended in the 67th minute after being disqualified because of a second yellow card. "Yepez hurt us in that 6-3 game because we let her run free," Pinecrest assistant coach Hector Cuevas said later. "With a player like that, you can't give her space. In practice this week, we had Marissa on Latanya Cain. It was Latanya and Marissa all day." Terry Sanford found itself in a defensive posture early because of the ease with which Pinecrest moved the ball into the attacking third. In the 11th minute, Lynch crossed a ball from the right to Fields a few yards in front of the goal. Fields' first attempt was blocked, but she got a second chance and put it in the net for a 1-0 Patriot lead. The Patriots took nine shots in the first half to two for the visitors. Yepez got the first of her two shots in the match in the 38th minute, sending it high over the goal from the top of the penalty area. Thwarted in the penalty box by goalkeeper Laura Russell several times in the first half, Cain received a ball in transition near midfield seven minutes into the second period. She carried the ball down the left wing before sending a shot past the goalkeeper into the net for a 2-0 lead. Yepez, who entered the match with 59 goals for the season, was having little impact on the game, not even getting many touches with Dotson always nearby. "It wasn't that hard," Dotson said of the assignment. "She got completely frustrated. She wasn't able to control the ball -- she wasn't able to make passes." But about midway through the second half, Yepez broke into the Patriot penalty for the first time. The ball was deflected away to the far post where it was kicked back across the goal mouth by the Bulldogs' Nellie Johnson. Tia Beasley finished it, making it 2-1. It took less than two minutes for the Patriots to make it 3-1, again in transition. Fields chipped a ball over the defense to the racing Cain, who sent it high into the net from about 20 yards away for her 45th goal of the season. In a higher gear now, Yepez challenged Patriot goalkeeper Katelyn Burwell twice in a short span. In the 65th minute, Burwell parried her hard shot from close range past the near post. "You know she's left-footed and she's just going to rip it," Burwell said. "She has a hard shot, but I had the angle on her. "All over the field everyone was playing so well -- winning the ball -- playing together." About two minutes later, Yepez left with the second yellow card after a rough scuffle with Dotson. Soon another Bulldog player, Sara Bandurraga, also exited with a second yellow. With about nine minutes to play, Brittney Dishner and Lynch collaborated to win a ball on the right side of the Patriot attacking third. Lynch emerged from the traffic and made a bee-line for the Bulldog goal. She made it 4-1 with a hard shot from almost point-blank range that left the goalkeeper defenseless. "Basically, we just wanted to take it to this team," said Dishner, one of five Patriot seniors. "They beat us the last time, and they had a horrible attitude. We took it out on them on the field. We trained really hard this week and I think it showed." Terry Sanford (20-3), Hoggard and Pinecrest are ranked 11 through 13 in the latest coaches' association poll. The Patriots lost to Hoggard in the third round of the 2003 and 2004 playoffs, both times at Pinecrest. All four Pinecrest losses this season have come against ranked teams, Broughton (first), Apex (fourth), Terry Sanford and Western Guilford (fourth in 3-A). A win in Friday's state quarterfinal match would put Pinecrest in one of the semifinals next Wednesday against Broughton or Apex. The Patriots won the center of the field, end-to-end most of the night, starting with Burwell, Caitlin McArdle at sweeper, Dotson, Fields and Morgan Maples in the center of the midfield, and Lyndsey Anderson in a reserve role. "If you ask me what the difference was from the first game," Cuevas said, "it was that we took Rachel Yepez out of the game with Marissa Dotson. That's the bottom line. "It's a great feeling to see them peaking at this time. We just have to keep it going." <-Previous 5-13-06 vs Northern Durham (Second Round, State Tourn. W, 4-1) 5-19-06 at #12 Hoggard (Fourth Round, State Tourn. L, 1-4) Next-> |