Rosewood breaks loose on soccer field

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 12, 2005 1:56 PM

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Held scoreless in its previous two outings, the Rosewood women's soccer team needed to find a quick offensive spark Monday evening.

The spark turned into successive lightning strikes and led to a four-goal outburst in the first 10 minutes. Once the Classes 1-A/2-A Carolina/Eastern Plains match ended, the Eagles had converted nearly 25 percent of their shots on goal into a 12-0 pounding of winless SouthWest Edgecombe.

Rosewood (2-3-1, 2-1 C/EPC) emerged victorious at Branch Pope Field for the first time this season.

"I wanted to make sure that we started off quickly and put pressure on them ... make sure we were headed in the right direction today," said Eagles coach Eddie Maldonado, whose team fired 46 shots on goal.

The Eagles needed less than one minute to fulfill Maldonado's pre-game request.

Sophomore midfielder Rachel McCormick, who did a masterful job distributing the ball all evening, ran onto a loose ball 30 yards from goal and pushed it down the right sideline. She easily dribbled past her defender and centered the ball to junior forward Erin Thibodeau.

Thibodeau, double-marked by the Cougars, ripped a shot to the near post. SouthWest keeper Jessica Chamblee got one gloved hand on the ball, but couldn't stop it from finding the back of the net. Rosewood led 1-0.

Two more Cougar turnovers, inside their own 18, led to goals by Thibodeau and junior forward Stephanie Behrend. Mary Jo Moore assisted Thibodeau, who assisted Behrend before 10 minutes had elapsed.

"We don't have enough understanding of basic skills to be able to move and handle the ball well," said SouthWest coach Dennis Creech, who starts two freshmen and sophomores among his 11-player rotation. "Until we learn how to do that, we're going to have issues."

Senior midfielder Emily Thronson and sophomore midfielder Samantha Daughtry each notched a first-half goal. Hanna Pettus, a freshman midfielder, recorded the assist on Daughtry's goal. The Eagles also benefited from two "own" goals off corner kicks and held a commanding 7-0 lead at halftime.

Chamblee recorded eight saves on 20 shot attempts during the first 40 minutes.

"They never turned (us) loose," Creech said. "They played attacking soccer. Every time we tried to move the ball upfield, we lost the ball and they counter attacked. The thing they were doing nicely was centering the ball in front of the goal and taking a one-touch shot.

"When they did that, they were open and successful."

Thibodeau completed her hat trick (three goals) just five minutes into the second half and boosted her season total to eight. Behrend tallied the next two goals to earn her own hat trick. Thibodeau and Molly Grantham, who started in goal, finished off the Cougars with back-to-back scores on 30-yard free kicks.

SouthWest (0-7-1, 0-2-1) finished with one shot on goal, which back-up goalie Lynsie Deans stopped outside the near post in the second half. Deans and Grantham combined for the shutout -- Rosewood's second against conference opposition.

"We moved the ball around nicely like we've been working on in practice," Maldonado said. "Finishing (shots) was better than it has been the last two games. Defensively, we didn't have a whole lot of pressure so we didn't really see if the stuff we've been working on has paid off or not.

"I think overall we played pretty well."

Rosewood continues play Wednesday at North Johnston, while SouthWest entertains archrival Tarboro High.

Notes: Rosewood leads the all-time series 7-0 and has won 30 of 36 C/EPC regular-season contests since 2001. ... The Cougars have not scored in 560 minutes (eight matches) of action this season. ... Chamblee and back-up keeper Tranell Seibert combined for 16 saves, including a second-half PK save by Chamblee. ... Rosewood led 10-0 in corner kicks.