Warriors build lead, hang on against CBA

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 19, 2013 1:47 PM

• Print
• Email

PIKEVILLE -- Without execution game plans are nothing more than hopes and dreams.

Eastern Wayne perfectly executed its game plan to force someone in a Charles B. Aycock uniform other than Cheyenne Warrick to beat them Thursday evening.

The Warriors jumped out to a 3-0 halftime lead and held on a for 4-3 victory at Hardy Talton Stadium.

The win is Eastern Wayne's first over the Golden Falcons since a 2-1 victory on May 6, 2011 in the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference tournament finals. The Warriors had not beaten Aycock during the regular season since April 21, 2010. The victory also creates a tie between the two rivals for second place in the ECC.

Warrick and the Golden Falcons (9-5-0 overall, 7-3-0 ECC) found scoring chances difficult to come by early. Eastern Wayne's Allison Dixon marked Warrick, Aycock's leading scorer, tightly and the Warriors' defense limited Warrick's space to create offensively with the ball at her feet.

Eastern Wayne (7-3-0, 7-3-0) controlled the possession throughout the first half and took away the Golden Falcons' ability to send passes from the midfield forward to Warrick. Warrick finished the game with just four shots on goal.

"I thought Ally did a fantastic job on Cheyenne," Warriors' head coach Jorg Wagner said. "We had to make sure we had a quick defender on Cheyenne and we had to have pressure in the midfield and we had to press from behind with our forwards. You're never going to take Cheyenne out of the game but we were able to take her off her game."

Eastern Wayne forwards Megan Mozingo and Cheyenne Craft used their speed to create scoring chances throughout the first half. The Warriors took the lead for good in the 22nd minute as Craft's throw was initially headed by Mozingo before being headed again by Ann Hulse and past Aycock keeper Alex Van-Meir.

Mozingo extended the lead to 2-0 in the 26th minute as she dribbled past the Golden Falcons' defense and eluded a sliding Van-Meir to score. Mozingo scored again in the 44th minute off a rebound as the margin grew to 3-0.

Alex Strickland got Aycock on the scoreboard on the second of those corner kicks off Emily Borel's assist.

"Some of the urgency would have been nice in the first half," Golden Falcons' head coach Byron Adkins said. "We were very lackadaisical. I don't think we played particularly well tonight."

The Warriors' Grace Delbridge and Warrick both converted penalty kicks in the 59th and 60th minutes respectively as Aycock trailed 4-2 with 20 minutes to play. Strickland pulled the Golden Falcons to within 4-3 in the 74th minute as her long-range shot beat Eastern Wayne keeper Erica Duke.

The Warriors play host to Triton on Tuesday. The Golden Falcons entertain Southern Wayne on April 25.