Reigning ECC camps roll along
By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 1, 2009 1:59 PM
PIKEVILLE -- Glaring weaknesses surfaced in Charles B. Aycock's double-overtime victory over Eastern Wayne on Monday evening.
The Golden Falcons worked out the kinks Wednesday.
Tyler Lynch supplied two goals and two assists as Aycock cruised past Triton 6-2 in their Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference men's soccer contest at Hardy Talton Stadium. The Golden Falcons (10-1-1 overall) remained atop the league standings with South Johnston at 3-0.
"(Eastern Wayne) was kind of a wake-up call for us," said Aycock assistant coach Scott Summers. "We worked on some things in practice such as passing and moving off the ball, and as you can see by the result, the guys did really well.
"Our) midfield finally got it together."
Brandon Davis came off the bench to score two goals and junior Chama Rodriguez provided two assists for the Golden Falcons, who scored five goals out of the flow of play. Jose Rodriguez and Michael Fearney each added a single goal in the 80-minute affair.
The four-time defending ECC champion, Aycock collected its 40th victory in 43 tries against league opposition in regular-season play since 2005.
Triton coach Joey Miriello had to change his lineup due to illness and injury. The absences further weakened a team which lost nine starters and 15 seniors off last year's squad that won the Cape Fear Valley Conference title and reached the elite eight of the state 3-A playoffs.
"My two cornerbacks were out, so I had to take two midfielders and move them to the backfield, so we were playing a little out of position," said Miriello. "(But) that doesn't take anything away from Aycock. They put the ball on frame and beat us tonight. We really had no choice (to crowd the box).
"We hadn't played a team that was quite as fast up top as they are and they were controlling the pace of the game."
The teams played back and forth the first few minutes before Aycock started to control possession. The Hawks (4-4-1, 0-2-1 ECC) packed the 18-yard box defensively and keeper Nick Glover, one of two seniors on the team, saved the first three shot attempts.
Aycock ended the scoreless deadlock in the 17th minute.
Junior Chama Rodriguez ran onto a loose ball in the midfield and passed forward to Jose Rodriguez. Somehow the senior slipped between two Triton defenders and tucked the ball away into the upper left corner of the net.
Three minutes later, Patrick Roosen sent a direct free kick outside the 18 toward the far post. The ball deflected off Lynch's back, clanged off the post and rolled harmlessly across the goal line to give Aycock a 2-0 lead.
A through ball from Juan Pina to Lynch led to the Golden Falcons' third goal in the 22nd minute.
"We've had too many guys try to dribble (in the past) and that slows the flow of play," said Summers. "We told them to let the ball do the movement ... ball moves faster than the player. Share the ball as a team because we can't have one guy take on the whole team."
Davis scored twice in an 88-second stretch in the second half off assists from Chama and Lynch. Lynch assisted Fearney's goal.
Triton got goals from Justin Torres (27th minute) and Daniel Goff (77th).