Hunt hands Eastern Wayne 3-0 loss

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 23, 2009 1:46 PM

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Deborah Doran did all she could.

The Eastern Wayne junior goalkeeper made eight saves, including a number of dazzling stops, but it wasn't enough in a 3-0 loss to Wilson Hunt on Wednesday evening at Little Big Horn.

Eastern Wayne threatened midway though the first half and had a shot clang off the crossbar. Maegan MacAleese saw her shot roll across the front of the goal mouth and out of bounds.

"I was especially pleased with the first half," said Eastern Wayne head coach Jorg Wagner. "It makes a big difference whether you go into halftime down 1-0 or up 2-1. We had a ball hit the crossbar and Mac just missed one. I thought in the first half we maybe deserved a goal or two."

Brittany Raper's goal in the 35th minute gave Hunt a 1-0 lead that it held at the half.

"You're not going to contain the likes of Brittany Raper forever," said Wagner. "You've got to give yourself a bit of a cushion and we didn't get that cushion today."

Doran made multiple point-blank saves in the second half, including turning away Raper on the doorstep more than once.

"Deborah has been the revelation of the season really," said Wagner. "Even she'll tell you, 'I'm just a reserve keeper,' and she is. Deborah is a heck of a field player, but with Danielle (Daniel) limited to field action with a broken hand, Deborah has to play in the goal.

"She came through with some fantastic saves."

Alex Hall collected a rebound from Doran in the 54th minute and put it in the back of the net to extend the visitors' lead to 2-0. Orlandra Dickens' goal in the 65th minute put the game out of reach for the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference leaders.

"The third goal pretty much put the nail in the coffin," said Wagner. "We're not going to come back from 3-0 that late in the game."

With five starters on the bench, Eastern Wayne (4-5-3 overall, 4-3-0 ECC) struggled to generate offense in the second half and spent the majority of the final 40 minutes on defense.

"We had five starters on the bench for various reasons and we're limited in our substitutions and that came into play," said Wagner. "The last 20 minutes I started pulling even more starters and we've got to start thinking about (Thursday's) match with Beddingfield."

Eastern Wayne entertains Wilson Beddingfield today.