Spring Creek holds off GHS

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on October 7, 2010 1:47 PM

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SEVEN SPRINGS -- Spring Creek was left wondering what it had to do to finish in front of the goal.

Goldsboro was left wondering what could have been.

The Gators scored just four times despite 24 shots on goal and survived a late Cougars' rally for a 4-3, Carolina 1-A Conference victory on Wednesday afternoon.

Damon Pate chipped a shot over Spring Creek keeper Mauricio Bautista to give Goldsboro a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute. Antonio Avila's goal in the eighth minute tied the game at 1-1.

Avila found himself all alone with Goldsboro keeper Chris Wiggins in the 36th minute, but his shot hit the post. Wiggins turned away Victor Ortiz's shot from close range in the 39th minute.

Avila scored off Dante Ortiz's through ball in the 40th minute to give Spring Creek a 2-1 lead. The Gators held a 12-5 lead in shots on goal in the first half.

Dante Ortiz extended the lead to 3-1 on a header off Omar Zavela's assist in the 41st minute. Avila collected a rebound off of Jimmy Victoriano's shot in the 49th minute and beat Wiggins to push the lead to 4-1.

Spring Creek added 12 more shots on goal in the second half, but struggled to convert. Wiggins finished with 13 saves, including seven in the second half.

"It was one of those things," said Gators head coach Paul Estrada. "You do what you can. We were lucky to walk out with a win today. Their keeper had some good saves. It's one of those things where we kind of let up. Now, we can see we need to put teams away when we need to."

Jeffrey Martinez trimmed the margin to 4-2 in the 54th minute when his shot off Pate's assist hit the post and bounced into the goal. Martinez scored off Bryan Johnson's assist in the 76th minute to pull the Cougars to within 4-3.

"We came out flat," said Goldsboro head coach Tyler Gatlin. "We turned it around in the second half and they played much harder and I'm proud of them for that. This easily could have gone the other way if we hadn't made silly mistakes.

"We're learning and I think what we're going to take away from this is we can hang with anybody in the conference."

Spring Creek (5-3-1 overall, 3-0-0 CC) continues conference play at Ayden-Grifton on Monday. The Cougars (2-9-1, 0-2-0 CC) entertain Princeton.