BOYS' SOCCER: Warriors, Saints play to 2-2 draw

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on October 6, 2016 10:23 AM

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BY BEN COLEY

bcoley@newsargus.com

DUDLEY -- Thirteen minutes into its match with Southern Wayne on Wednesday evening, Eastern Wayne goalkeeper Daniel Stevens left the game after a rough collision.

Almost 20 minutes later, the Warriors' Anass Sarah was called for a red card.

Meanwhile, the Saints constantly pressured the box, firing shot after shot -- but the Warriors' defense remained unfazed. The county and Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference rivals played to a 2-2, double-overtime draw.

"It was a good tie, but we could've won this game tonight," said SW head coach Mario Aguilar. "We made mistakes and let it be tied."

When the red card occurred, the Saints were already up 1-0 after a goal by Rodolph Enescar.

Five minutes later, EW's Christian Anderson broke away from the defense. SW goalkeeper Michael Ponce was caught out of position, and Anderson booted the ball over Ponce's head to tie the score at one-all.

Just two minutes into the second half, Anderson converted a penalty kick to give the Warriors a 2-1 advantage.

"It was a crazy turn of events," Summers said. "We were down 1-0, and then we come back and make it 2-1 with a man down. Our idea was just to try to hold on -- to see if we could hold on to a 2-1 lead and just pack it in the back."

Summers' plan worked for a stretch, but SW's aggressive attack eventually broke down the defense. Adan Reyes slammed the ball into the net from 25 yards out to tie the match at 2-2 in the 58th minute.

After the score was tied, the Saints maintained their pressure with a flurry of shots throughout the second half.

SW's best opportunity came in the 79th minute, when Reyes was tripped in the box and awarded a PK. But Eastern Wayne backup goalie Bryan Morales saved the shot and a rebound shot as well.

The game then went to two 10-minute overtime periods where neither team could maintain any consistency on offense.

"We controlled most of the second half," Aguilar said. "We put on a lot of pressure and I saw he moved (Anderson) down to defense, and they gave us opportunities to score. But we didn't finish."

SW had more than 25 shot attempts. Morales -- who moved from defense to goalkeeper -- registered more 10 saves in nearly 90 minutes of play.

For the Warriors, Wednesday's game was the middle of a back-to-back-to-back stretch. EW lost 3-0 to Aycock on Tuesday and will play at South Central today.

Summers noted that if the team had fresher legs, the results against SW may have been different. But the second-year coach was proud of how his team fought through adversity.

 "Playing a man down, I'll take the 2-2 tie over a loss," Summers said. "But moving forward, we have to keep that intensity. I was telling them, imagine if we would've had all 11 guys and had our full team. But at the end of the day, we didn't let up."