Golden Falcons, Saints play to 1-1, double-overtime draw

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on September 18, 2015 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Sitting away from his players and glancing at the scoreboard from time to time, Charles B. Aycock soccer coach Byron Adkins anticipated a dagger-scoring goal to occur at any given moment Thursday evening.

"It's going to be 2-1 and one team is going to wonder 'how did we lose this game'," he said.

No one lost.

Then again, no one won.

Aycock and county rival Southern Wayne battled to a physical 1-1, double-overtime draw during their Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference encounter on the Hardy Talton Stadium pitch. The Golden Falcons snapped a two-game skid against the Saints, who swept the regular-season series in 2014.

Golden Falcons assistant coach Corey Worrell didn't consider the overall outcome as a loss. Neither did Saints head coach Mario Aguilar, whose team experienced the same result against New Bern earlier this week.

"Definitely not," Worrell said. "We've played three games this week, (this) is the third game of the week and I think we played the best out of 11 games. I believed we played exceptionally well, we've just got to put away the opportunities that we had."

Juninho Sanchez's penalty-kick attempt hit the crossbar in the opening half for Aycock. Another shot inside the 6-yard box by Oscar Carmano deflected off of Saints keeper Michel Ponce and bounced back into the field of play.

The Saints had just four shots on frame, including a dangerous long kick that clanged off the crossbar in the second half. Adkins stayed silent as sweeper Dallen Edwards cleared the ball out of the 18-yard box.

"Our guys played great, they played tough," Aguilar said.

The Golden Falcons (8-1-2 overall, 0-0-1 ECC) broke the scoreless tie in the 24th minute. A loose ball pinged off several players inside the box and landed at Sanchez's cleats. His right-footed laser slipped past Saints keeper Michel Ponce for the 1-0 advantage.

Southern Wayne (5-1-2, 0-0-2) tallied the equalizer nine minutes later. Sophomore striker Shyquell Kornegay gained possession on the left side of the box, encountered pressure and crossed the ball into open space.

Aycock's defense failed to properly clear the ball, which rolled toward an unmarked Ulysses Ramirez on the right side of the box. Ramirez appeared offside when he connected on his goal-scoring shot toward the back post.

The assistant referee never raised his flag.

Adkins and Worrell argued to no avail.

Ponce's deflection of Carmano's shot and Sanchez's missed PK occurred after Ramirez's goal - just the Saints' fifth in a stretch of 440 minutes during their past five outings.

Play became chippy and caused constant stoppage of play in the second half and both overtime sessions. The teams combined for 43 fouls and four yellow cards.

"It hurts that we didn't get the one to put away in the back of the net," Worrell said. "This is a 3-A foe along with Eastern Wayne in our conference, and we've got to beat both of them to move on to the playoffs. That's our goal."