 |
Pinecrest at Lumberton Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 Alton G. Brooks Stadium, Lumberton, NC |
 |
||||
|
|
4
|
4 |
|
|||
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
Pinecrest at Lumberton Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 Alton G. Brooks Stadium, Lumberton, NC |
|
||||
|
|
4
|
4 |
|
|||
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
| With dynamic strikers Latanya Cain and Kim Currie on the pitch, there was a pretty good chance that Wednesday's soccer match between Pinecrest and Lumberton would produce some goals. "Gee, seven goals," Lumberton coach Kenny Simmons recalled saying during the halftime intermission with his team holding a 4-3 lead. "What's the story going to be in the second half?" It took Currie only 27 seconds to find the back of the net, jump-starting Lumberton to a 3-1 lead in the first eight minutes of the match. Behind a pair of goals by Rebecca Dupre, and one by Cain, Pinecrest closed the gap to 4-3 at halftime. The tale of the second half was all Pinecrest. Fifteen minutes into it, Cain received a pass from Claire Epling, and shed a handful of defenders before scoring the equalizer. The Patriots dominated the action the rest of the way, taking 13 shots to only one for the home team after the intermission, but the match ended in a 4-4 tie. Coach Larry Martin's Patriots, now 1-1-1, were also touched up for three early goals in last Friday's 3-1 loss at Wilmington Hoggard. He was pleased with his team's response to a similar adversity. "They played the second half with great energy and determination," he said of his players. "We just needed to sort some things out defensively. I think that's a learning process. We'll get there." Cain (N.C. State) and Currie (UNC) are scheduled to face each other in the ACC next fall. Cain earned all-state honors in 2007, while Currie made the list in 2006 as a freshman before ACL surgery cut her 2007 season short. The Pirate star is on track to graduate from high school in three years. Missing two starters, the Patriots' starting lineup included three sophomores and three freshmen. Currie ran on to a long through ball from Anna Musselwhite to score the quick goal. Two minutes later, Dupre unloaded a shot from about 20 yards out that squirted away from the Pirate goalkeeper, tying the match at 1-1. But goals by Morgan Haskins in the sixth and eighth minutes put the home team back in front at 3-1. After a nice build-up in the 17th minute, Dupre connected with Cain in a crowd in front of the Pirate goal. Cain turned and punched it in, making it 3-2. Then in the 29th minute, the Pirates' Blair Adcock made it 4-2, scoring a breakaway goal. "When you put them on the line even with us," Martin said, "we're going to lose. We just had to figure how not to do that." That ended the Pirate scoring. Less than a minute later, Dupre found the net with another wicked shot from about 20 yards away. "Rebecca has as much pace as anybody out there and she can also strike the ball," Martin said of the sophomore. Before and after Cain's tying goal, the Pirates were mainly limited to clearing the ball to midfield, only to have the Patriot defenders pick the balls off and restart the attack. A hooking shot off the left foot of Morgan Maples narrowly missed in the 61st minute. Cain was unable to put the ball in an open net from about 15 yards away in the 66th minute. With just over two minutes to play, Pinecrest got caught in a dangerous situation that almost put its strong second half to waste. One of the Pirates was ready to put away a loose ball in front of an empty Patriot net when sophomore defender Bailey Pages came out of nowhere to kick the ball away. Afterward, Pages held up her hands with the fingers only inches apart to indicate how close the ball was to crossing the goal line. "It wasn't in at all," she said, validating the referee's decision that she got to the ball just in time. "I just kicked it. I didn't even think." Freshman Sarah Dejak was the Patriot goalkeeper until the final five minutes when a hand injury knocked her out of the match. Senior Keely Harbour finished up. Another freshman, Kate Hieronymus, helped the Pats control the midfield. Maples and Jill McIlwain were credited with assists for the Patriots. Currie contributed a pair of assists for the Pirates, now 2-2 on the season. Cain felt the Patriots were unlucky not to get a victory, considering their dominance in the second half. "In these first couple of games, you can tell we're not a team yet," she said. "We've been starting off pretty badly, and taking awhile to get in our groove. But I had faith we would get it together and we did. I'm just looking forward to the rest of the season." <-Previous 2-29-08 at #15 Hoggard (L, 1-3) 3-10-08 vs Douglas Byrd (W, 11-0) Next>> |