Cleveland - E. Wayne soccer
By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on September 8, 2011 1:49 PM
Eastern Wayne scored two goals in overtime and rallied for a 5-3 win over Cleveland High School on the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference boys' soccer scene on Wednesday night.
The Warriors claimed their first win of the season in unique fashion.
In the second minute, Tyler Muehlenthaler collected a pass from Joe Herlihy and drove a shot into the back of the net to give the home team a 1-0 lead.
Cleveland evened the game in the ninth minute when Brandon Gremillion collected an Eastern Wayne turnover and raced down the sideline. Gremillion beat the Warriors' keeper and swung the momentum in the visitor's favor.
"We got off to a good start, but it didn't take them long to get us back," Eastern Wayne head coach Jorg Wagner said. "Then we allowed a couple of soft goals and they put us on the ropes."
The Rams took the lead in the 16th minute on a goal by Nolan Stelzner. Two minutes later Cleveland made the score 3-1 with a goal from Jacob Burton.
At the halftime whistle it appeared the Warriors would remain winless, but a change in attitude as well as a change in strategy got the home team clicking in the second half.
The Warriors caught a break in the 68th minute when a foul inside the 18-yard box gave Kyle Sasser a penalty shot, which he promptly converted to make the score 3-2. Sasser tied the game seven minutes later when a bad decision by a Ram defender led to a turnover and a point-blank shot.
"We just played with more intensity the last 15 minutes of the game," Wagner said. "We moved Kyle around to different spots and he was able to make something happen."
Riding a wave of momentum, Eastern Wayne dominated the overtime period.
Sasser completed his hat trick (three goals) in the 81st minute when a long ball was mishandled by the Rams keeper inside the 18-yard box. Sasser collected the rebound and fired it into an empty net. Deonte Davis added an insurance goal in the 94th minute for the Warriors.
Nate Rice recorded six saves in the net for Eastern Wayne after replacing starting keeper Jordan Furgeson, who was taken out of the contest after being run into on the Rams' third goal.
Eastern Wayne (1-5-0 overall, 1-1-0 ECC) travels to Wilson Fike on Monday.