Eastern Wayne dominates Kinston

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on September 16, 2004 1:56 PM

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After being whistled offsides three times in the first 10 minutes, Eastern Wayne made the necessary adjustments against Kinston's offsides trap -- and in a big way.

The Warriors' Joe Gossett recorded a natural hat trick (three straight goals) in a 14-minute span in the middle of the first half as Eastern Wayne went on to cruise to a 9-0 win over the visiting Vikings.

The Warrior midfield -- David Hook, Dustin Smith and Nickolai Rosinski -- consistently played crisp passes ahead to Gossett and the Warrior forwards as Eastern Wayne (4-2, 2-0 Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference) outshot Kinston 18-4 on the game.

The Viking defense -- pushed up to midfield -- could not keep up with Eastern Wayne's speed up front and always seemed to be chasing behind the Warrior forwards. Once Eastern Wayne got its passing game and timing in synch, it was only a matter of time before the Kinston defense cracked.

Gossett, who turned in his first three-goal performance of his career, took assists from Andrew and Adam Corley and scored once unassisted. The senior now has five goals in his last two games.

"We did what we needed to do after 20 minutes," Eastern Wayne coach Jorg Wagner said. "It was difficult at first I thought. We haven't seen an offsides trap like that all year.

"Joe is very quick and when he can get going he is very difficult to stop."

In the second half, the Warrior barrage continued.

It took less than three minutes for Andrew Corley to get into the scoring on a pass from Gossett. After an unassisted goal by Adam Corley, Eastern Wayne's David Hook booted a right-footed blast past Kinston goalie Andy Spence off of a nicely placed drop-pass from Bobby Gambella. Hook's goal made the score 6-0 with 15 minutes left.

For most of the final 20 minutes, Wagner used his bench and the reserves took advantage of the turf time. Sean Worrell and Chris Brown came off of the bench to score the seventh and eighth goals, respectively. Adam Corley capped the scoring on an assist from Brown.

"We got a little confidence after half and the next 15 or 20 minutes we were able to take it," Wagner said. "We played a lot of through-balls, used our forward's speed and got a lot of open looks."

Adam Corley had two goals and two assists, while Brown finished with two helpers.

Wagner praised the midfield for not only fueling the offensive attack, but also keeping the pressure off of the Warrior defense and goalie Steven Stackhouse, who combined with reserve Stephen Gourley and turned in his Eastern Wayne's fourth shutout of the season.

"We have a lot of skill in the midfield. It's like having three point guards out there," Wagner said. "Anyone of them can do it and we just tell them to knock it through. The entire midfield stops a lot of the balls that would come to the defenders."

Kinston fell to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in the ECC.

The Warriors travel to Washington on Monday.

Kinston 0 0 -- 0

E. Wayne 3 6 -- 9

First half

EW -- Gossett (An. Corley assist), 28:00

EW -- Gossett (unassisted), 24:40

EW -- Gossett (Ad. Corley assist), 14:00

Second half

EW -- An. Corley (Gossett assist), 37:43

EW -- Ad. Corley (unassisted), 23:20

EW -- Hook (Gambella assist), 15:00

EW -- Worrell (Brown assist), 13:20

EW -- Brown (Ad. Corley), 9:23

EW -- Ad. Corley (Brown assist), 8:40

KHS EW

4 Shots 18

1 Corner kicks 1

2 Offsides 6

8 Fouls 4

Saves -- Kinston -- Spence 9. Eastern Wayne -- Stackhouse 1.