Gators build early advantage, hand Warriors loss on soccer pitch
By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on August 22, 2014 1:48 PM
aetzler@newsargus.com
SEVEN SPRINGS -- Coming off a loss in its season opener against Southern Wayne on Monday, Spring Creek knew it needed to make a change.
The Gators focused too much on playing balls through the middle against the Saints and weren't able to create out wide.
But led by left forward Juan Vega and striker Otto Binar, Spring Creek stretched the field and used creative passing in a 5-3, non-conference win over Eastern Wayne on Thursday evening.
"We're still not hitting on eight cylinders," Spring Creek head coach Linda Salter said. "But tonight was better. I'm still concerned with what we're getting from the midfielders."
Binar caused trouble for the Warriors defense all game, scoring three goals and assisting on another for the Gators.
The Warriors' three-man defense relies on midfielders dropping back to help when teams attack. Head coach Jorg Wagner prefers that an opposite-side midfielder provide help, and then two additional midfielders pressure from behind.
Wagner chalked up the defensive miscues to his team's fitness.
"It's just the midfielders not being fit enough to get back to the other side of the field to defend," Wagner said. "When the midfielders don't bring that backside pressure, it allows their forwards to dribble around and take on defenders one-on-one.
"Otto is so good at that that hurt us at times."
Binar scored a hat trick with goals in the 29th, 45th and 71st minutes. Teammates Gustavo Avalos and Byron Lopez Cabrera scored the other two goals.
Eastern Wayne scored all three of its goals in the final 15 minutes.
Henry Nelson spent much of the game working on timing his runs under Wagner's direction -- often just a tad early or late in the timing and just missed a few goal chances.
But in the 66th minute Nelson timed his run perfectly and tapped in the Warriors' first goal.
Ethan Zadrozny added two goals for Eastern Wayne. His first goal came in the 73rd minute -- a penalty kick after Christian Anderson drew a foul in the box on Marcos Casteneda.
Zadrozny's second goal came on a rocket shot from 35 yards out that bounced off the right goal post and into the net. The goal came off of a throw-in and Salter was not pleased with it.
"It's a good shot from where he was," She said. "But there was no one there. He should have never got that shot."
Nelson was not the only player in the game who struggled to time his runs. Binar, despite the three-goal performance, was called offside eight times and took away multiple scoring opportunities for the Gators.
"I was off on a few of those," Binar said. "I don't know that it was all of them. Some of those might have been missed I think. But since it was called I guess I was off."
Brandon Fossett had 11 saves for the Warriors.
Spring Creek gets a chance at redemption against Southern Wayne next week. Binar says the Gators owe the Saints payback.
"We want to get them back," Binar said. "We didn't play the way we would have liked to against them."