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#14 Pinecrest at Scotland County Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 Pate Stadium, Laurinburg, NC |
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(8-0-0) |
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(5-2-1) |
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#14 Pinecrest at Scotland County Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 Pate Stadium, Laurinburg, NC |
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(8-0-0) |
2
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(5-2-1) |
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| For much of Wednesday's girls' soccer game at Scotland County, Pinecrest appeared to be experiencing the lingering after-affects of a pair of rare one-sided losses over the weekend. The Patriots needed late goals by Morgan Maples and Lyndsey Anderson to escape with a 2-1 victory. That extended the squad's conference winning streak to 79 matches and its unbeaten string to 80 contests (including a tie game in 2002). Defeated 5-0 by Leesville Road and 5-2 by Burlington Williams in the Brittany Showcase Tournament on Friday and Saturday, the Patriots fell behind the Scots on a goal in the eighth minute by Megan Brigman. "I think we were all pretty much tired from the weekend because it was really hard," Anderson said afterward. "We haven't been beaten that badly since the last time we went to that tournament." Seconds after Scot goalkeeper Shelby Solis gathered in a shot by the Pats' Molly Lynch, Brigman raced down the left wing with the ball, beating the defenders and goalkeeper Morgan Saunders in transition. The Scot sophomore got into the Patriot penalty box four more times with chances to add to the lead. Twice she sent the ball over the frame with goalkeeper Morgan Saunders, cutting off her angle. On another two occasions, she was denied after hard tackles by Patriot defenders. One of those stops was by Sarah White, who moved from the left side to the right in the second half to track Brigman, a teammate of White's on the Sandhills Force Classic squad. "She's really fast," White said, "so I just had to stay behind her so she wouldn't get up there. Anytime she got the ball, it made me really nervous." The Patriots had the Scot goal under siege for most of the second half, but with 20 minutes left in the match had nothing to show for it. "I was getting really nervous," Anderson said, "because that would have been our first conference loss in a couple of years. We had to step it up." With 15 minutes left to play, Anderson took the ball down the left wing before sending a ball across the goal mouth on the ground. Maples ran on to it at the far post and finished it, tying the match at 1-1. About a minute later, Patriot coach Larry Martin received a red card after protesting an offside call too heatedly. During the next Patriot possession, Lynch dug a ball out of a crowd in the right corner and poked it across the field to Anderson. The sophomore then launched a left-footed shot from about 20 yards out that glanced off the top post of the goal and fell behind the line for what turned out to be the game-winner. In the closing seconds, Brigman had a direct kick opportunity from just above the penalty circle, but her shot glanced harmlessly off the Patriot wall. Pinecrest improved to 8-0 in the Mid-Southeastern Confe-rence and 10-2-1 overall while Scotland dropped to 5-2-1 and 7-2-2. The Pats are idle until an April 16 home match against Richmond Senior. The Patriots have fallen behind three times in conference matches this season, twice to the Scots. Scot coach Colin McDavid owns the last three league wins over the Patriots, two in 2001 and the one in 2002. "Pinecrest raised its level in the second half," McDavid said, "and we started to get a little fatigued and had some injuries here and there. The stoppages hurt the flow for us. "Hats off to Pinecrest -- they persevered, but so did my girls. It was just a good match." <-Previous 3-31-07 vs #2 Walter Williams (L, 2-5) 4-16-07 vs Richmond County (W, 4-0) Next-> |