WCDS falls to Greenfield

By Rob Craig
Published in Sports on August 29, 2007 1:48 PM

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The frustration could be seen on every Wayne Country Day player, coach and fan.

Each time a Chargers' player crossed a ball or kicked a lead pass towards the goal, there was never a Wayne Country Day player in the vicinity. On defense, breakdowns due to inexperience left Greenfield players open for shots.

Put it all together and it equaled a 4-1 Wayne Country Day loss on Tuesday afternoon. It was the Class 1-A Coastal Plains Independent Conference opener for both teams.

"Any time you beat Wayne Country Day, you've done something," said Greenfield coach Ben Forbes. "This is the hardest dang place for us to play. We've come over here plenty of times and left with our tails between our legs."

This time, the Knights didn't exit the field in shame. They instead left with pride after scoring perfectly executed goals.

Two shots were scored by 8th grader Sam Hoeferkamp while Curran Blackwell and Paxton Barnes added the others.

Wayne Country Day's lone goal was scored by newcomer Matt Wolf.

"It was a couple of mistakes that changed the momentum of the game," said Wayne Country Day coach Baron Heinemann. "We had our chances, we just couldn't finish them."

The Chargers fell behind just seven minutes in when the Knights got a free kick just outside of the box. John Dandanell passed to Blackwell who unleashed a wicked shot at keeper Ryan Ford. Ford knocked the ball down, but couldn't capture it and Blackwell cleaned up to give Greenfield the 1-0 advantage.

Both teams battled for control at midfield in physical contest. The hardest hit of the night came at Ford who collided with Jarred Hinton minutes later.

Dazed, but uninjured Ford remained in goal.

"Ryan's as tough as nails," said Heinemann. "He's a vocal leader."

The Chargers looked for the equalizer, but each time a shot was set up the ball was misplayed or the offensive player was out of position. Forwards were forced to help a defense that featured three players playing the sport for the first time in years.

A defensive breakdown and brilliant speed gave Greenfield its second goal. Blackwell kicked a lead pass for Barnes who ran onto the ball and past the Chargers' defense. Barnes finished with a rocket to the right of Ford making it 2-0 Knights.

"He's got a lot of speed," Forbes said.

With just three minutes to play before the half, Wayne Country Day gave its fans a reason to be optimistic.

A foul inside the box gave the Chargers a penalty kick. Wolf stepped up and booted the shot into the back of the next cutting the Greenfield lead in half.

"We can always depend on Wolf to go all out," he said. "Sometimes, he comes out sometimes puking, but it's because he goes so hard."

Fouls and yellow cards were the only thing that plagued Greenfield.

"We were so stupid out there," said Forbes. "Silly little things cost us fouls."

Fortunately for Forbes, mistakes wouldn't cost Greenfield again.

In the second half Hoeferkamp scored twice, the final time on a brilliant header on a cross from Averette Packard.

"The keeper (Ford) made a valiant effort," said Forbes. "That ball just did get over him."

The goals gave the Knights a comfortable 4-1 lead and they would never be tested again.

Greenfield improves to 2-5-2 (1-0-0) while the Chargers fell to 2-2 (0-1).

"We'll learn from this one," said Heinemann. "It was a tough one."