PREP BOYS' SOCCER: Abrill puts Rosewood on his wings

By Aviel Smolka
Published in Sports on August 28, 2018 5:51 AM

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By AVIEL SMOLKA

asmolka@newsargus.com

Rosewood may finally be on the right track.

After an 0-2 start to the season, the Eagles have won two of their last three games. Following a tie against Eastern Wayne on Friday night the Eagles and Warriors met again on Monday evening.

Down 4-1 early in the second half, Rosewood staged a miraculous comeback and defeated Eastern Wayne 5-4.

"Tonight, we didn't come ready to play, but we kept working hard and getting after it," Eagles head coach Eddie Maldonado said. "They showed good character tonight and I was proud of that."

Eastern Wayne opened the scoring in the fourth minute when Andrew Sherman collected a loose ball that came off a throw-in. Sherman fired a shot past the Eagles' goalie to give the Warriors a quick 1-0 lead.

Four minutes later, after a Rosewood handball in the box, Bryan Morales scored on a penalty kick. Lance Steiner increased the Warriors' lead to 3-0 in the 17th minute when he recovered a loose ball in the box and buried a point-blank shot.

The Eagles got on the board in the 21st minute on a goal by Geovanni Abrill.

Eastern Wayne was up 3-1 at halftime.

The Warriors seemed to the put the game away in the opening moments of the second half when Morales tallied his second goal of the night after a throw into the box he kicked it into the net.

"To be up and lose it at the end shows we didn't fight to the end," Eastern Wayne head coach Scott Summers said. "If we're up like that it has be a win every single time, we just got relaxed."

Rosewood refused to give up and proceeded to score four unanswered goals.

The Eagles' second goal came again from Abrill in the 47th minute. One minute later, Abrill converted a penalty kick to cut Eastern Wayne's lead down to 4-3.

Abrill tied the game in the 63rd minute when he headed in a corner kick.

In the 72nd, Rosewood took a 5-4 lead when Abrill converted another PK for his fifth goal of the night.

"Geo put us on his shoulders and carried us tonight scoring those five goals, he's that caliber of player" Maldonado said.

Rosewood (2-2-1 overall) plays host to Goldsboro on Wednesday. Eastern Wayne (2-2-1) travels to Wilson Fike on Thursday.