Big second half lifts Eastern Wayne over Southern Wayne

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on October 4, 2007 3:02 PM

• Print
• Email

What was still a ballgame, turned into a rout in the blink of an eye.

Leading visiting Southern Wayne 3-0 at halftime, Eastern Wayne scored three goals in roughly two minutes to open the second half en route to a 7-1, Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference victory Wednesday evening.

Just two minutes into the second half, Chris Knobling dribbled a pass from Richard Riddle into the Saints' 18-yard box. With a defender latched to his left arm, Knobling managed to turn and fire to beat Southern Wayne keeper Rosendo Molina to make it 4-0.

Just over a minute later, Riddle punched home a deflection off a shot by Werner Wooten. Zach Pinter joined the scoring frenzy in the 44th minute, delivering a bending ball over Molina's head from the top right of the 18-yard box.

"We had to work pretty hard at the end of the first half," Eastern Wayne head coach Jorg Wagner said. "I was hoping we would come out a bit more composed to start the second half and we did. To get three goals in the first couple of minutes was nice."

Geordi Brown capped the Warriors' scoring when he connected from long distance in the 63rd minute.

Outside of Benny Segura's goal off a header in the 56th minute that got the Saints on the board, Eastern Wayne (6-6 overall) dominated from start to finish. The Warriors finished with an 18-4 shots on goal advantage, and had five different players find the back of the net.

Knobling struck just six minutes into the contest to give Eastern Wayne an early cushion. Riddle took a pass from Sang Kim down the left sideline in the 15th minute, dribbled through the 18-yard box to the right and tucked the ball in the corner of the net for a 2-0 lead.

Eric Suncin's blast from about 25-yards out in the 24th minute pushed the margin to 3-0.

"We have a three-match week this week," Wagner said. "To score seven goals from five different guys is nice. I was able to get some younger guys in the game, and Robbie Keys didn't play very much this game. Coming in, I thought Southern Wayne was good for one, two, three or four goals. I was pleased with the way we played."

Keeping pace with the likes of Charles B. Aycock, Wilson Hunt and Wilson Beddingfield in the top-heavy ECC, while jockeying for a favorable seed in the conference tournament, continues to be Eastern Wayne's top priority.

"We have to beat the teams that Hunt, and Beddingfield and Aycock beat," Wagner said. "Especially, since we have to play Hunt and Aycock again. I was hoping to win at least one of those the first time we played those two."

Rosendo Molina finished with seven saves for Southern Wayne, while Josh Olmstead had two saves for Eastern Wayne.

The Warriors are 4-2 in the ECC and will travel to Wilson Fike today in non-conference action. Southern Wayne (3-8-1, 0-6-0 ECC) will visit Wilson Beddingfield on Monday.