Aycock bounces SW in quarterfinals

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on May 6, 2009 1:47 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Nichole Casto provided the wake-up call.

C.B. Aycock responded.

Midway through the second half, Casto raced through the Golden Falcons' defense and beat keeper Courtney Sheeks to give Southern Wayne a 1-1 tie.

The Golden Falcons tallied three consecutive goals and dumped the Saints 4-1 on a soggy Hardy Talton Stadium pitch Tuesday evening. Fourth-seeded Aycock travels to top-seeded Hunt today for semifinal-round action in the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference girls' soccer tournament.

Moments after Casto tied the game, Amanda Farmer collected a rebound off a shot by Alma Islas and buried it in the back of the net. The Golden Falcons (10-6-2 overall) seized a lead they would never relinquish.

"We had kind of a different roster tonight because we had several girls that were gone last week for a trip," said Golden Falcons interim head coach Adam Livengood. "We had some girls that had to miss practice and one of our team rules is if you miss practice you're not going to play for a half the next game. When Southern Wayne put that goal in, I think that finally put the switch on."

Minutes later Farmer drew a foul inside the 18-yard box and received a penalty kick. Farmer beat Southern Wayne keeper Clair Parker in the bottom right corner to extend the advantage to 3-1.

"Amanda was one of our missing players from last week and she's missed a couple of games and a lot of practice," said Livengood. "I was happy to see her come in there and shake out the cobwebs, and get a couple of goals.

"She was a big lift. She's tough and she fights for the ball."

Hollie Baker made a run through the Saints' defense with the ball at her feet and gathered up a rebound off her own shot and slipped it past Parker to cap Aycock's scoring.

The Saints (4-11-2) improved upon a 5-0 loss against the Golden Falcons in Pikeville last week. They just missed scoring in the first half when Casto's blast clanged off the crossbar.

"I felt like this game should have been tied 1-1," said Southern Wayne head coach Mario Aguilar. "Our team I felt did great and I feel they're tired."

Aycock grabbed a one-goal advantage early in the first half when Taylor DeMartini's free kick from 35 yards out bounced off Parker's hands and into the net.

The Golden Falcons lost both regular season meetings with two-time ECC champion Hunt. Aycock held the Warriors scoreless for 77 minutes in the second contest and has embraced the idea of facing the tournament's top seed.

"We want nothing more than prove that we can beat the No. 1 team in the conference," said Livengood. "We believe that we can go out there and get ahead of them this time and we can beat them. If we want to win the championship, we knew we would have to beat Hunt eventually."