|
Green Hope 3 at East Chapel Hill Wildcats 1
Green Hope traveled to East Chapel Hill Wednesday night for their
annual clash with Wildcats.
East CH has a beautiful soccer field measuring 70 yards wide that
opens up the game for attacking opportunities. Green Hope made a
couple of subtle changes due to recent injuries and the return of
some injured players. Mark Trawick moved to center midfield, Nate
Dixon got the start on the right flank and JP Lebiecz stepped in
at left midfield.
The Falcons showed a 'little' more patience in the first half and
did not try to force the ball. GH took advantage of the width and
space by maintaining possession among their talented defense, waiting
for an opportunity to attack. During one of the build-ups, GH earned
a free kick and Eric Butterly played a nice ball to Taylor Estrada
who served a super cross to Evan Paussa who fired on net, only to
be saved by the keeper.
Butterly was involved in another scoring opportunity as he served
a dangerous low corner than made it all the way through the goal
mouth without anyone from GH able to knock it home. Several midfielders
had shots and the chance to take the lead was presented, but never
materialized.
E. Chapel Hill had several opportunities thwarted by the stingy
defense and continued stellar play of Jonathan Schwartz in goal.
Jon made a couple of diving saves, clean punches and did well coming
off his line.
At half the score was a familiar 0-0.
The second half was much different as Green Hope opened the scoring
with a goal by Nate Dixon. The Falcons were not able to find the
open man on the opposite side of the field during the first half;
but in the second half, a conscious effort was made to switch the
ball often to counter the flat defense of East Chapel Hill. Taylor
Estrada sucked in a couple of defenders in the left midfield and
played a super ball to Nate Dixon who was wide on the right flank.
Nate calmly collected the ball, went to goal and slotted it inside
the lower left hand post.
The Falcons went up 2-0 as forward Evan Paussa continued his hard
work and determination. He won the ball, deeked the East Chapel
Hill goalkeeper and put the ball in the back of the net. Evan was
pumped after his first goal and made a great play a few minutes
later to win the ball again and sent a lofted ball over the keeper
to go in the goal. However, the eager Bryan Moon ran to the ball
as it was going in the goal to tap it in 6 inches from the goal
line, easily securing Bryan's name in the stat sheet. Great effort
by both players! 3-0 GH.
East Chapel Hill was able to break the shutout with a questionable
non-call on offsides, but regardless the goal counted and the game
ended 3-1. Green Hope extends its record to 4-1-1 and gets ready
for the toughest Tri-7 conference season in history with the opener
next week against Middle Creek.
|
