Rosewood opens Carolina 1A soccer season with win

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on September 5, 2013 1:47 PM

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astevens@newsargus.com

Rosewood avoided falling into a dangerous hole during its Carolina 1-A Conference opener Wednesday evening.

The Eagles used a pair of late goals to put away Hobbton, 4-2, at Branch Pope Field.

Rosewood applied pressure to the Wildcats' defense early. Than Truong fired a shot from inside the 18-yard box that was saved by Hobbton keeper Aldair Feliciano in the fourth minute.

Two minutes later, Feliciano's attempt to clear the ball from inside the 18-yard box failed. The Eagles' Corey Lynn gathered up the rebound and scored for a 1-0 lead.

Hobbton created offensive momentum of its own and earned five corner kicks in the first half. The Wildcats held a 5-3 edge in shots on goal in the opening 40 minutes, but trailed 1-0 at halftime.

Truong earned a penalty kick in the 41st minute and increased Rosewood's lead to 2-0.

The Wildcats began to control the midfield and fed passes up to their forwards. Eber Gomez got Hobbton on the scoreboard in the 51st minute. Gomez had his shot in the 58th minute saved by Eagles' keeper Daniel Herring.

"We talked to the Goldsboro coach and the coach at Wallace-Rose Hill," Rosewood head coach Eddie Maldonado said. "We kind of had an idea of what we were getting into. We knew that (Gomez) was going to be real good. The Wallace coach told us you can do your best, but he's still going to score his goals and he got his goals tonight."

The Eagles created some separation on the scoreboard in a pivotal five-minute stretch. Truong scored off Marquail Almontaser's crossing pass into the 18-yard box in the 63rd minute.

Five minutes later, Lynn found the back of the net off Truong's assist.

"When we were up 2-0 and then they got one I was like 'oh gosh, they're coming, they're coming,'" Maldonado said. "Then when we got that third (goal), it made me feel a little more confident and that fourth one made us feel real good."

Gomez scored on a penalty kick in the 75th minute, but it was too late for Hobbton. The Wildcats were given three yellow cards and also had an assistant coach ejected for arguing with the officials.

Rosewood (3-1-1 overall, 1-0 CC) continues conference play at home Monday against James Kenan.

"We told the guys that they could dig their hole at the beginning of the season or we could start off on the right foot," Maldonado said. "It's big for us to come out and start well but we have another big one on Monday.

"We'll see if we can keep rolling."