Warriors rout Saints

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on October 6, 2005 2:02 PM

• Print
• Email

DUDLEY -- When veteran Eastern Wayne boys' soccer coach Jörg Wagner scanned the statsheet after Monday's victory over Kinston, one statistic bothered him.

The Warriors had no assists in their six-goal output.

"We always try to play a possession-style game, of course, but today we wanted to be a little more team oriented," said Wagner. "Much of the stuff that we've done up to this point, the wins we've gotten, were based on our 11 individuals being stronger than the other team's 11.

"That falls short, of course, when you play against a team when the overall result is greater than the individual players."

Eastern Wayne rediscovered its team offense Wednesday evening against archrival Southern Wayne. Eric Burgeois collected a natural hat trick (three consecutive goals) off two assists from two teammates in a 6-0 victory at the Doyle Whitfield Athletic Complex.

Senior Andrew Corley provided two goals and sophomore Geordi Brown concluded the scoring in the 65th minute. The Warriors (6-4-2) posted their third shutout of the season and climbed to 4-2 against Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference opposition.

"We tried, this time around, to set things up and find our way back to our strength," Wagner said.

The Warriors did.

Players scanned the field for open teammates, passed quickly against Saints defenders and looked for shots that were easy to finish.

Although Eastern Wayne managed just one goal in 20 first-half shots and 13 corner kicks, Wagner couldn't have been more pleased with his team's effort.

Effective passing and sending balls to open spaces forced the Saints to expend energy. Once that happened, goals became more frequent out of the flow of play.

"I had to explain (at halftime) that it's very difficult to effectively play against a team and score goals out of the flow of play if the opponent is tightly packed in the back," said Wagner. "You're going to score goals against a team like that in two ways.

"Either you'll get a lot of dead-ball situations, put danger right in front of the goalmouth or have somebody run onto the ball. Or, you have to wear them down ... after a full half they tire down from chasing a little bit. That's when you open up things."

Eastern Wayne tallied a strange goal in the 49th minute. Senior Adam Corley threw a ball in from the left side and it settled into the far corner of the net. The midfield official called a goal and credited it to Bourgeois.

After a few minutes of discussion, a Saints player received a red card. The ejection forced Southern Wayne (1-6, 1-5 ECC) to play short-handed for the final 30 minutes.

Bourgeois converted a penalty kick in the 54th minute and completed his hat trick in the 58th minute off Andrew Corley's assist. Corley got loose in the midfield and drew a Saints defender toward him.

Bourgeois continued his run into the 6-yard box and Corley dished off a beautiful cross that Bourgeois lofted over keeper Casey Best's head.

"It's a little bit weird," Wagner said of Bourgeois' first goal. "The kid has been playing well and finished a lot of stuff. He's played out of position for us, but he's doing real well in the front. The last one he had was a great assist (from Andrew).

"The boys who scored today had (goals) handed to them on a silver platter."

Corley picked up his second goal in the 62nd minute on a nice feed from Jin Lee. Corley assisted on Brown's goal.

Notes: Bourgeois took over the team lead in goals with 14, followed by Corley with 13. ... Best had 14 saves. ... Eastern Wayne owned decisive edges in shots on goal (36-3) and corner kicks (15-2). ... The Warriors are 4-1-2 when scoring three or more goals in a match this season.