Eastern Wayne beats topples Southern Wayne 2-0 behind Zadrozny

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on October 23, 2014 1:46 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

Ethan Zadrozny has experienced a lot of hard times during his four years on the Eastern Wayne soccer team.

He's never made the playoffs. He's never won the conference.

That was until Wednesday night ... Kind of.

Zadrozny's late first-half goal gave Eastern Wayne all it needed in an eventual 2-0 win over cross-county rival Southern Wayne. The win means Eastern Wayne wins the 3-A portion of the Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A split conference. It is the first time Eastern Wayne finished at the top of its 3-A opponents in nearly 10 years.

"Freshman, sophomore and junior years were all pretty tough," Zadrozny said. "But this year we've got a team together that really clicks and we all get along. It feels really good to be back in the playoffs and ahead of the 3-A schools."

After three quarters of a first half that was played mostly in the midfield with few shots even coming close to the goal frame, Zadrozny attacked a misclear that he anticipated off of a Saints defender and drilled a low shot in to the left corner.

"I knew they were going to clear it through the middle, they had done it three times before that," he said. "So I ran up to it got to the ball and just kicked it as hard as I could and it went in."

Just three minutes later, sophomore Christian Anderson scored the insurance goal to put the Warriors up by two. It was the second time in two games Anderson has scored a big goal for the Warriors against a rival.

"It feels very, very, very good," Anderson said of his recent performances. "Just to be helping these guys and scoring feels awesome. We're playing pretty well going into playoffs and that's what matters."

Southern Wayne will be in the playoffs, too. They're just not quite rolling in to the postseason like the Warriors -- it's more of a sputter.

After Saints coach Mario Aguilar dismissed leading scorer Peterson Michel from the team, he's struggled to find players who can push forward and score goals. The Saints have done well to keep possession, but any time they had a chance to move forward on goal against the Warriors they seemed hesitant and by the time a player made a decision a host of Warriors defenders had surrounded him and cut off the passing lanes.

"Being disciplined against these guys is probably the most important thing," Zadrozny said. "They like to dribble a lot and if you're out there stabbing at (the ball) before you know it they're by you. You just have to surround them and sandwich them in basically.

Despite the struggles the Saints have had trying to find scoring, Eastern Wayne coach Jorg Wagner said preparing to play them this game was harder than it has ever been.

"Mario has done a wonderful job with this team," Wagner said. "It's a credit to him. When they had (Michel) and you have to focus on one player it's actually a little easier than when you have to cover all the bases. They're out there playing for each other now, and a team that plays together and isn't about any one guy is always more dangerous.

Each team endured a couple injuries to a key player in a grueling physical match. Saints center back Obens Tilus sat out the second half with an undisclosed injury. Warriors leading scorer Alex Acosta suffered an elbow injury. Neither player is expected to miss the first-round playoff match.