The Spoilers: Shingleton tallies lone goal

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 23, 2008 3:11 PM

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A conference win over a county archrival -- on senior night.

A post-game Gatorade bath.

And Tom Zietlow didn't mind. After all, it was a perfect ending for the Charles B. Aycock girls' soccer coach on his birthday.

Ashley Shingleton scored the game's lone goal as the Golden Falcons ruined Eastern Wayne's senior night celebration, 1-0, at Little Big Horn on Tuesday evening.

C.B. Aycock improved to 6-8-2 overall and 3-5-1 in Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference play. Eastern Wayne (8-6) fell to 6-3 in league play with one regular-season contest remaining.

The Warriors controlled possession for the majority of the first half, earning four corner kicks and taking four shots on goal with little to show for their effort.

The Golden Falcons finally broke through in the 37th minute. Eastern Wayne got caught out of position defensively and Shingleton knocked a loose ball in the box past keeper Danielle Daniel.

"This works out real nice," said Zietlow. "That goal in the first half was huge and that's what we've been waiting for all year. You can't draw it up any better than that. She was in the right place at the right time."

Playing without leading scorer Brandi Dean, who has been lost for the season to injury, the Warriors have been forced to adjust their offense.

"Not having Brandi takes away our deep threat," said Eastern Wayne head coach Jorg Wagner. "We have to hope the defenders are slower than our forwards. With Brandi that was a given and now it's a little bit of a toss-up."

Also missing due to injury was senior midfielder Brittany Spence. Both Dean and Spence were on crutches Tuesday evening.

The Warriors again dominated possession in the second half, recording six more corner kicks with no results. Aycock keeper Courtney Sheeks gobbled up a loose ball following an Eastern Wayne corner in the 46th minute. Sheeks turned away Mary Catherine Hollowell's shot on goal in the 58th minute.

Emily Sparks' shot off a corner in the 70th minute sailed wide. The Warriors' final opportunity to score on a loose ball in the box came up empty as the referee's whistled ended a frustrating night.

Eastern Wayne finished with a 6-3 shots on goal advantage and a 10-1 margin in corners.

"We had enough chances," said Wagner. "It was a relatively meaningless game in terms of the standings. I know that Aycock is always going to bring their best effort at Eastern Wayne.

"It's soccer. Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug."

Aycock is 3-1-2 in its last six outings.

"We gave up way too many corner kicks," said Zietlow. "That's another weakness that we improved on tonight that we didn't get scored on. I think what we're doing is we're growing up.

"Our defense is experienced and that's what kept our scores down this year. We're learning how to play together."