Eastern Wayne soccer advances

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on May 1, 2008 3:00 PM

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Eastern Wayne won't take its title shot for granted.

Not after defeating pesky Wilson Beddingfield 2-1 in the Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference women's soccer tournament semifinals on Wednesday evening.

Runners-up in regular-season play, the second-seeded Warriors (10-6-0 overall) travel to top-seeded Wilson Hunt on Friday. The championship match is set for 7 p.m.

The third-seeded Bruins trailed 2-0 at halftime, but pressured, badgered and tested Eastern Wayne until the final whistle. Jamie DeRatt raced through the Warriors' defense in the 63rd minute and found herself all alone with sophomore keeper Danielle Daniel. She buried a shot in the right corner to trim the margin to 2-1.

Beddingfield (10-8-1) outshot Eastern Wayne 4-1 in the second half, won the majority of loose balls and continued to pressure the Warriors defense. The Bruins' last-ditch effort on a corner kick in the 78th minute fell short.

"They decided in the second half that the game wasn't over," said Eastern Wayne head coach Jorg Wagner. "They were really mainly utilizing the two DeRatt sisters and they had two good targets there. We played well in both halves, but in the second half Beddingfield came out and decided they were going to give it a try and it almost worked for them."

Sam Roth's pass led Crystal Lemmon through the Bruins' defense before Lemon drove home the game's first goal just six minutes in. The Warriors continued to create scoring chances with a pair of corners in the 10th minute.

Janielle Daniel pushed Eastern Wayne's lead to 2-0 in the 33rd minute when she dribbled into the box and tucked a goal-scoring shot into the right corner. With leading scorer Brandi Dean out for the season with an injury, Lemmon and Daniel have been called upon to provide a spark offensively.

"We have to be much more accurate in hitting our forwards," said Wagner. "That was great stuff from Janielle and we've been working extensively with both of our forwards on one-on-one's with the keeper because that's really our bread and butter.

"Janielle's filling the role as best as she can and Crystal has been a four-year starter and when we need something we can count on her."

The Warriors lost both regular-season meetings against Hunt.

"Last year we had lost both regular season games to Hunt and then we were able to pull the upset here in the tournament," said Wagner. "I don't know who's going to win that one, but I like our chances."