Rampants run early, double up Warriors 4-2 on soccer pitch

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on September 19, 2014 1:48 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

Eastern Wayne captain Victor Kokiko felt the nerves of his team's biggest game of the season to date.

And so did his teammates.

Before Kokiko and the rest of the Warriors could even get themselves in gear they were getting run off of their own field, as J.H. Rose found the net three times during the first five minutes.

But when Eastern Wayne finally got it together, it dominated the next 75 minutes of the match. It wasn't enough however. The Warriors fell 4-2 to the Rampants in Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference play Thursday evening.

Roman Galaska scored twice for Rose. Andrew McKinnon and Zach Fairbrother each added a goal.

"I think we were nervous and that got to us a little bit," Kokiko said. "That first half it was just like we were asleep."

It was more like just the first five minutes. Eastern Wayne actually outshot Rose and had more chances in the first half. They just didn't have anything to show for it.

The Warriors had seven shots from inside the 18-yard box go over the goal, and even more got blocked down by Rose defenders.

"We work on keeping the ball low and into the far corner in practice," Eastern Wayne coach Jorg Wagner said. "That's by far percentage-wise the best chance. But it's whenever somebody alters our angle, or alters the way we strike the ball that's when we send it in to the next county."

Kokiko said as a captain he felt the responsibility to make sure the team didn't get down after the sloppy first half. He tried to stay positive for his teammates, but said that learning to be captain is something he needs to work on.

"It's my first year being a captain," he said. "So I need to do a little better with some of that stuff, but I think I was able to make sure the guys didn't get down too much, and we all get along anyway, so I knew they would be there."

He was right.

In the second half, the Warriors (4-4-0 overall, 2-2-0 ECC) finally find paydirt. Transfer student Alex Acosta picked up a deflected ball and tucked it away for a goal in the 46th minute. Nine minutes later, Kokiko didn't waste any time as he drilled a free kick into the right corner.

"We've worked on taking them quick so the defense can't get the wall set up," Kokiko said. "That's what I did there. I was able to keep it down and think I got kind of lucky. Think it hit a defenders shoulder."

The goal rejuvenated the Warriors, but the damage had already been done. Rose retreated its players back and often had nine players in the box, making it nearly impossible to find shooting lanes.

"You don't come back from four goals against a team like Rose," Wagner said. "If we play the whole game the way we played in the second half, we dominate that game. It's a shame the game could have gone differently."