League-leading Cleveland too much for EW

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on October 2, 2012 1:49 PM

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Eastern Wayne head boys' soccer coach Jorg Wagner remains hopeful that his team can win an Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference game this season.

Midway through the first half against Cleveland on Monday night, it became apparent that first ECC win would have to wait. The league-leading Rams built a 6-0 lead by halftime on their way to a 7-1 victory at Little Big Horn.

Cleveland began its offensive onslaught in the fourth minute as Nolan Stelzner scored on Jesse Olmstead's assist. Olmstead collected a loose ball off a corner kick inside the 18-yard box and slipped a shot past Warriors' keeper Brandon Fossett to extended the lead to 2-0 in the ninth minute.

Gabriel Roman scored off Brett Koesmstedt's assist following a corner kick in the 16th minute. Lawson Lamm's goal off Brandon Gremillion's assist in the 20th minute increased the Rams' advantage to 4-0.

"Obviously, the game was over after about 20 minutes in terms of result," Wagner said. "Cleveland plays a style that we would love to play, great ball possession, quick switches of the field and very intelligent runs. They are difficult to stop and it doesn't help when early on when we make very poor decisions."

Gremillion found the back of the net off Olmstead's assist in the 34th minute and Koesmstedt scored from outside the 18-yard box in the 38th minute. Cleveland held a 14-2 edge in shots on goal in the first half.

Wagner challenged his team at halftime to win the second half and Eastern Wayne played with more intensity during the final 40 minutes. Adrian Thompson gathered a rebound inside the 18-yard box after his initial shot deflected off a Rams' defender and fired a shot past Cleveland backup keeper Ethan Fellows.

The Warriors also earned corner kick opportunities in the 65th and 68th minutes.

"We tied the second half and after playing as poorly as we did in the first half I challenged our guys," Wagner said. "We're used to being in the thick of things in the conference. It is difficult and we are trying to be mindful that these are young kids. They're still believing that they can do something and sooner or later I'm hoping for their sake that a conference win is going to come and if it does it will be great for them."

Jacob Burton capped the Rams' scoring with an unassisted goal in the 62nd minute.

Eastern Wayne (2-10-0 overall, 0-8 ECC) plays host to Southern Wayne on Oct. 8.