Eagles pitch shutout

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on September 27, 2005 2:10 PM

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Rosewood's soccer team scored all three of their goals in the first half, but the Eagles' play in the second half proved just as pleasing to coach Daniel Mitchell on Monday night at home against Ayden-Grifton.

After intermission, Rosewood outshot the visitors from Pitt County 8-1, controlled most of the possession and effectively cleared the ball defensively -- eventually turning in a 3-0 win over the Chargers in the Class 1-A Carolina Conference opener for both teams.

The Eagles (1-0 Carolina) improved to 3-5 overall heading into a non-conference game at home against Hobbton on Wednesday. Ayden-Grifton exited at 1-8-1 overall and 0-1 in league play.

Rosewood's all-around possession game in the second half was fueled by midfielders Goss Kendall and Drew Kriger, who effectively distributed the ball up front to Trey Kriger, Selving Sabillon and Elliott Lee. The Eagles consistently found holes in the Charger defense and worked the ball down the wings.

While there were several near misses, the halftime score held at 3-0 for the final 40 minutes. Still, Mitchell praised his team for the second-half effort.

"We talked about at halftime we wanted to get more possession. I thought there was too much dribbling in the first half," Mitchell said. "We wanted to get control of the game. We kept it on our end, but we've just got to work on finishing more in our attacking-third of the field."

On its third corner of the first 10 minutes, Rosewood struck for its first goal. Elliott Lee, who finished with one goal and two assists, served a hard corner kick into the box as Trey Kriger ran on to the pass and headed past the Charger goalie.

Sixteen minutes later, Lee booted another corner from the right -- this time with more arc. Seemingly unmarked, Kendall headed the ball into the net as the Eagles took a 2-0 lead.

"Elliott got some good balls for the guys to get a head on and the guys did a good job of finishing. We were pleased to get two goals off of corner kicks," Mitchell said.

Just before halftime, Lee got into the scoring when he won a loose ball on the left wing near the top of the 18-yard box, took several dribbles, then knocked a shot right-footed past Ayden-Grifton's goalie to complete the scoring.

Rosewood finished with eight shots in both halves and had a 16-4 lead in shots on the game.

The Rosewood defense and sophomore goalie Trevor Morris turned in their second shutout of the season. Ayden-Grifton rarely tested Morris from close range as the first-year starter finished with two saves.

The Chargers had their most substantial offensive momentum in the middle stages of the first half. Their best scoring chance came when David Ramirez hit the top bar with a shot near the 18-minute mark, but Rosewood cleared the loose ball out of bounds.

Ayden-Grifton had only two shots on goal the rest of the game from that point.

"I thought the defense played well tonight," Mitchell said. "Kyle (Bunn) did a good job of clearing things out when he got in there."