Eastern Wayne soccer drops ECC opener

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on August 30, 2012 1:49 PM

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South Johnston put on a clinic in addition by subtraction.

After going a man down in the 46th minute due to a red card with a 2-1 lead, the Trojans erupted for three goals in four minutes and rolled to a 6-1 win Wednesday night at Eastern Wayne.

It was the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference opener for both teams.

Andy Camacho put South Johnston in front 1-0 in the second minute as his shot across the 18-yard box got past Warriors' keeper Brad Makdad. The Trojans just missed extending their lead in the 11th minute when Yovani Herrera's shot clanged off the post.

Eastern Wayne tied the game at 1-1 in the 20th minute when Joe Herlihy scored off Preston Daly's assist.

South Johnston began controlling possession in the midfield, feeding passes to teammates to open space and running on to those spaces with considerable speed. Camacho's shot in the 28th minute missed just high.

A minute later, Yovani Martinez made a long run down the sideline with the ball at his feet and slipped past a pair of defenders before firing a shot past Makdad.

"If you break down the South Johnston attack into smaller bits you would have two, maybe three players moving with pace and technical ability into the right spaces at the right time," Warriors' head coach Jorg Wagner said. "That created problems for us. Our defense and counter attack was broken down by one or two players who knew where to go and how to do it."

Camacho was given a yellow card in the 46th minute for arguing with officials. He was given a second yellow and a subsequent red card for continuing to plead his case. With Eastern Wayne in position to capitalize on the man advantage, it was the Trojans who went on the attack.

Herrera began the offensive assault with a goal in the 50th minute that increased the margin to 3-1. Mario Monica scored twice in the next three minutes and he added his third consecutive goal in the 77th minute. South Johnston finished with a 15-3 edge in shots on goal.

"I thought right before disqualification we had a little possession going forward," Wagner said. "Then we gave up three quick goals in four minutes. Our problem really is we are not going to be more physical, stronger, faster or more technical than the opposing team.

What we have to do is be more tactically disciplined than the opponent. If we have three tactical breakdowns like we did we are looking at quite a difficult season coming up."

Makdad tallied six saves.

The Warriors (2-2-0 overall, 0-1-0 ECC) visit league foe Cleveland on Sept. 5.