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Green Hope 0 vs. Wake Forest-Rolesville 1
Green Hope hosted their first play-off game in several years on
Wednesday night against the 3rd seed from the Cap 7, Wake Forest-Rolesville.
The past two years, Green Hope had advanced to the state semi-finals
but did not play at home during those seasons. The team was looking
forward to playing for their home fans.
It was a perfect night for soccer as temperatures hovered around 70 degrees
at kick-off. The Falcons started the game with plenty of gusto.
Early in the game, John Hindman had a breakaway down the right center
of the box, but his shot went wide to the near post. Later, Martin
Murphy had 3 similar chances that he chipped over the goal, shot
wide left and then missed near post, too. Off a long-throw from
Hindman, Justin Taylor (JT) flicked the ball to Kyle Bandy who played
it to the keeper from 4 yards away. JT had a super chance himself
as he entered the box down the left flank and fired a volley just
over the cross-bar. The boys were excited as they were creating
some fantastic scoring chances early and should have been up by
several goals were it not for some unlucky finishing.
The half ended 0-0 and the team realized the longer the score stayed
0-0, the higher the likelihood something bad would happen. We needed
to capitalize on our chances and the commitment was to focus on
finishing and to ensure we kept Wake Forest off the score sheet.
In the second half, again, the team had another break-away opportunity
that Hindman knocked over, then Thomas Lindsey was on the end of
a super cross from Taylor Estrada, but Lindsey's sliding touch rolled
straight to the keeper. Several other opportunities were shot wide
or over the goal. Against the run of play, Wake Forest cleared a
ball into the center of Green Hope's end. The Cougar's striker managed
to get to it first, and finished his break-away past a helpless
Alex Long. The Falcons were down 0-1 with 15 minutes to play.
The team continued to fight back, but WF-R packed 8 in the back
and the Falcons settled for long balls over the top trying to get
through the defense, to no avail. With 9 minutes to go, the team
moved a defender to the forward line to try to equalize, but it
was not to be. The game ended and the Falcons were upset by the
lower seek and lost in the first round. This the first time in 7
years that Green Hope has not advanced to at least the 3rd round
of the NCHSAA state play-offs. The team was truly stunned at the
end of the game ... everyone was speechless.
The Falcons ended the 2006 campaign at 15-5-1 with a 1st round appearance
in the play-offs.
We wish the seniors the best of luck and thank them for their leadership
and effort. We look forward to the growth, development and maturity
of the underclassman to lead the 2007 Falcons deep into the play-offs.
Thanks for your support in 2006 and visiting www.greenhopesoccer.com.
Thank you to this year's special team. I was honored and proud to
be associated with this group of young men of character, class and
heart.
- Coach Chadwick
Congratulations and Good Luck to all the Seniors!
Justin Chandler
Ryan Dowd
Taylor Estrada
Michael Fox
Eric Fromwiller
John Hindman
JP Lebiecz
Thomas Lindsey
Bryan Moon
Eric Santilli
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