Cox's quick move sparks Goldsboro on soccer pitch

By Brandon Davis
Published in Sports on April 28, 2016 1:49 PM

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bdavis@newsargus.com

No shootout this time.

Two shots -- at the right time -- boosted Goldsboro's soccer team past Eastern Carolina 2-A Conference rival South Lenoir, 2-0, on Wednesday evening.

The Cougars fell to the Blue Devils in a 3-1 penalty-kick shootout just 17 days ago in Deep Run. But Goldsboro avoided an end-of-regulation tie at home by using patience -- and luck.

Maybe.

The game moved in slow motion for the first 32 minutes with the ball rolling gently between one player to the other. The Cougars watched the ball crawl past the goal on nine attempts until things started heating up on the field.

Goldsboro junior Angelina Nacca went to the ground off of a hit from an opponent. While both teams waited for the referee to call a foul, freshman Hannah Williamson snuck the ball to senior Melissa Cox for the Cougars' first goal.

"I felt like we weren't passing as well as we did in the second half," Cox said. "Our finishes were bad until about the time we got up to our goal, and then Hannah just kicked it right over to me. Everybody was frozen because they thought there was a foul. She just kicked it right over to me, and I kicked it right in. I didn't hear a whistle, so I played on."

The second half sped up with the Cougars attacking the goal and jumping back on defense.

Goldsboro freshman Makayla Roberts dribbled to the goal, but South Lenoir's goalie deflected the ball to her teammates. The Blue Devils ran down the field to set up their offense, but junior Jai'Quiera Braswell stood firm, denying any entrance to the Cougar goal.

The game halted in time until the ball rolled over to T'Ziah Kelly -- 35 yards away from the goal.

The Goldsboro freshman fired a shot and both teams watched the ball fly into the left corner of the net.

"It felt good," Kelly said. "I was afraid I was going to miss it."

She didn't, and the Cougars (9-4-2 overall, 4-2-0 ECC) moved into second place in the conference standings behind North Lenoir.

"We weren't passing the ball like we can, and some people were just booting it, which we've been working on for a while, not to do," Goldsboro head coach Chad Lewis said. "That's what we talked about at halftime, passing the ball more, looking for the open player, moving after the pass, and every time we did it, we created opportunities at the goal.

"We could have finished a whole lot better, but the finishes we did have, they were great. T'Ziah's goal was amazing."