Warriors explode in 2nd half against Saints

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 9, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Southern Wayne played its normally scrappy style, as expected, against county rival Eastern Wayne on Tuesday evening.

The Warriors turned up the defensive pressure in the second half.

Kristina Muses tapped in the go-ahead goal in the 46th minute and two other teammates added goal-scoring strikes during a 5-1 victory on the Little Big Horn pitch.

"Southern Wayne are a team that are going to surprise some people if you don't take them very seriously," EW head coach Jorg Wagner said. "They're scrappy, they try to play a possession game, but are not necessarily successful when we're able to put the pressure and in the first half, we were not (successful).

"They looked very strong."

Eastern Wayne converted off of a set piece less than 60 minutes into the Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference affair. Cheyenne Craft launched a long throw-in into the box, Megan Mozingo flicked the ball toward the back post and Cameron Dove finished off the goal-scoring play.

The Saints answered four minutes later.

Cynthia Rivera breezed past the Warriors' outside and central defenders, and found herself in a one-on-one situation with keeper Erica Duke. Rivera easily tucked the ball away and knotted the score at 1-1 with 5-plus minutes gone in the opening half.

Wagner dropped Dove 10 yards back to help compensate for Rivera's speed. The strategy limited Southern Wayne's ability to attack the goal and led to just three shots on frame during the final 75 minutes of play.

The Warriors (5-4-0 overall, 2-4-0 ECC) tweaked their pressure in the second half, started running through balls and created chances off of quick transitions. An unmarked Muses ran onto a loose ball and connected in the 46th minute to make it 2-1.

Cheyenne Craft converted a breakaway goal three minutes later. Junior Megan Mozingo, who has verbally committed to play softball at Campbell University, polished off Eastern Wayne's second straight win with goals in the 58th and 66th minutes.

Brennan Dove assisted on Mozingo's first goal.

"We anticipated where the pressure came from much, much better in the second half," Wagner said. "What really helped in terms of attack was Craft took the runs across the pitch, then cut toward the goal. She got her reward -- a well-taken goal ... good shot, good finish."

"Mozingo had a great ball off of the corner."

Eastern Wayne led 24-4 in shots and 4-0 in corner kicks. Keeper Erica Duke stopped three Southern Wayne shots.

Macie Weeks recorded nine saves for the Saints, who departed 3-4-1 overall and 1-4-1 against ECC opposition this season.