Rosewood-WRH soccer

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on November 3, 2011 1:56 PM

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The final game of Rosewood's soccer season played out much like the Eagles' entire year has -- plenty of adversity and a lot to be proud of.

Rosewood maintained its composure throughout 80 minutes full of controversial calls and never stopped competing in a 2-0 loss to Wallace-Rose Hill in the first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1-A boys' soccer playoffs.

The Bulldogs were awarded a penalty kick in the opening minutes after Jamin Espinoza went down on what appeared to be a phantom foul inside the 18-yard box. Espinoza scored to give Wallace-Rose Hill a 1-0 lead.

"They're not a bad team if you take out the diving and the theatrics that they've got going on," Eagles' head coach Eddie Maldonado said. "It's one thing to go down on a legitimate goal. It's another thing to go down on a goal that everybody knows shouldn't have happened.

"That kind of takes the wind out of your sails."

Neither team threatened offensively through the majority of the first half until Brayan Pacheco scored from inside the 18-yard box to extend the Bulldogs' advantage to 2-0.

Tan Truong nearly got Rosewood on the scoreboard just before halftime as his shot from inside the 18-yard box sailed high.

Neither team generated many quality scoring chances in the second half and the Eagles' best opportunity came on Truong's shot that missed wide off Matt Davis' cross.

Wallace-Rose Hill finished with a 9-2 edge in shots on goal.

"I think we had a couple of decent chances but we didn't have any good chances," Maldonado said. "They kept their sweeper in the back real, real far. With them having the sweeper played so far back any ball that got played too far back he just gobbled it up every time.

"The times when we did get the midfield pushed up we looked better, but we still couldn't create any clear opportunities."

Rosewood toiled through a difficult non-conference schedule and entered Carolina 1-A Conference play winless. The Eagles collected six wins in conference play and finished second in the league behind Spring Creek.

Davis and fellow seniors Bret Robinson, Jaylan Sneed and Matt Shaw played the final game of their high school soccer careers.

"We lost I think eight players from last year," Maldonado said. "I think we were 0-9-1 going into conference play and we got six wins in the conference. I told them tonight to not have a single win to get into conference and get six wins, I commend you on that.

"I'm really proud of how every game we got a little bit better and it paid off in the conference. You can't ask any more than for the boys to get out and work everyday and improve."