Mozingo takes second-half hit, Warriors dump Falcons

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on April 17, 2015 1:48 PM

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cellis@newsargus.com

The injury looked serious in the moment.

Just six minutes into the second half of Eastern Wayne's 5-1 win over 3-A/4-A foe South Central, forward Megan Mozingo took a kicked ball right off the face and immediately crumpled onto the field.

She laid there and covered her face for a few moments as her teammates gathered around her. Slowly getting up, Mozingo walked off to the sideline.

Two minutes later, she was back in the game.

The display of toughness was just a portion of the impressive game the senior co-captain put together, scoring twice and assisting on another goal to help the Warriors win their third straight game.

"The way (Mozingo) carries herself, it can be intimidating to an opponent," head coach Jorg Wagner said. "Whenever she steps on the field, there is determination. There is willingness to suffer a little bit. There is willingness to take some pain and play through it."

The injury looked worse than it was -- Mozingo only had to go to the sideline because she said the ball knocked out one of her contacts.

"It hurt, but there wasn't any bleeding or anything," she said. "There was just an issue with my contacts. And some pain."

Besides Mozingo, the Warriors got scoring contributions from Brennan Dove, Claire Molloy and Yessenia Gutierrez. They kept possession throughout the game and often exploited South Central's "diamond" scheme by getting their wings behind the defense.

The Warriors ended up with 16 shots on the day.

Defensively, they kept the Falcons from creating any real chances. Pressing forward, the Warriors kept the ball in the attacking third for most of the game. South Central scored its lone goal of the game late in the second half after Wagner had taken out most of the starters.

"At the beginning of the second half, I thought we had our strongest phase," Wagner said. "Our forwards especially were pressing high up the pitch. Whenever we get those flank runs, that's when the automatic stuff kicks in for us."

Both Wagner and Mozingo talked about the importance of this three-game win streak heading into what is shaping up to be the toughest portion of the Warriors' schedule. Their next three games are against New Bern, Wilson Hunt and J.H. Rose -- the New Bern and Hunt games being played on the road.

EW lost to New Bern and Rose 8-0 and 6-0, respectively.

"I think we will do better..." Wagner said. "We are tactically better now than we were back then. We've had six weeks of season."

While Mozingo knows how tough the next week will be, she thinks her and her teammates are much better prepared this time around.

"We've had a couple wins in a row and I think that's given us some confidence," she said. "We've just got to press and play hard, especially on defense. They're some high scoring teams."

The Warriors head to New Bern next Monday.