Mozingo's late goal lifts Warriors

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 4, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Megan Mozingo made sure Eastern Wayne finished the play this time with the outcome hanging in the balance.

The junior tucked away the game-winning goal early in the 79th minute, which capped a luck-filled, come-from-behind 2-1 triumph over county archrival Charles B. Aycock on Thursday evening.

"I just happened to be there at the right time," Mozingo said.

Indeed.

Tied at 1-1 and precious time ticking away, the Warriors' Cheyenne Craft gained control of a ball near midfield. Craft and her defender grabbed each other's jersey and the referee eventually called on a foul on the Golden Falcons with 60-plus seconds left in regulation.

Cameron Dove fired a free kick into the teeth of the Aycock defense, which attempted to direct the ball back upfield in hopes that time would expire. But the ball deflected to the back corner where Mozingo ran a route and slipped between two defenders.

Keeper Sarina Lancaster dove toward the loose ball just as Mozingo tapped it past the goal line at the 79-minute, 2-second mark.

"We tried to put one person in front of her and one person behind her so we could prevent her from getting the ball, but I guess she got really lucky on one of them," CBA senior Alex Strickland said.

Mozingo's goal gave the Warriors (4-4-0 overall) their first win in five Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference outings this season. The Golden Falcons (4-4-1) fell to 1-4-1 against league opposition.

Armed with quality players on both sides, neither team developed much of a tactical strategy in the physical contest. Eastern Wayne, on occasion, applied enough pressure to disrupt Aycock's offense and push the ball back upfield.

The inaccurate movement annoyed Golden Falcons head coach Byron Adkins, who constantly reminded his players to step into the midfield and create some distribution.

The Warriors started the second half with better intensity, ran through balls, moved balls forward and tried to direct passes toward the flags. Wagner hoped the strategy would stretch Aycock's defense and open up scoring chances on crosses into the box.

"It's always intense when we play them so we know we have to win the 50-50 balls," Mozingo said. "Coming into this game we're normally the underdogs, but I don't think we were this time, so we kind of fell asleep (in the first half) and didn't play like we should have.

"We realized they're not going to roll over for us, not in a rivalry game like this."

Strickland erased the scoreless tie in the 46th minute with a laser-like shot inside the 18-yard box. Despite working against two defenders, she managed to keep touch on the ball and give Aycock a 1-0 lead.

"I saw the defender coming at me, took that one extra step and just took the shot as fast as I could," Strickland said. "I saw the goalie (Erica Duke) coming out, so I made sure I got to the left of the goal because she was taking my angle away.

"I just gave it everything I had."

Eastern Wayne benefited from an own goal that ironically mirrored the game-ending play in the 55th minute. The ball deflected off an Aycock defender past the outstretched gloves of Lancaster, who finished the game with seven saves.

Each team took eight shots on goal and the Warriors led 2-1 in corner kicks. Aycock drew 15 fouls and three yellow cards.

"It was a fight, a local darby (with) the slightly luckier team ending up on top," said EW head coach Jorg Wagner, whose team leads the series 15-9-2 overall since 2004.