ELIZABETHTOWN – Senior Garrett Melvin racked up his 4th ‘Hat Trick’ of the season Friday scoring all 3 East Bladen goals as the Eagles posted a 3-1 Three Rivers Conference victory over West Columbus in their regular season finale.
In any other year, the Eagles would have been getting ready to host a first round playoff game, but with the ‘trophy hunting’ that went on this week by East Bladen’s competition for the TRC top spot and with the strange rules of COVID, the Eagles are waiting to see if they receive a ‘wild card’ invite to the playoffs.
“I hate we are in the position we are in right now with having to receive a wild card to get into the playoffs,” said Eagle Coach Jay Raynor. “We controlled our destiny and a rough 15 minutes cost us at Red Springs. We dropped a match that kept the distance between us and others close.”
Raynor continued, “Unfortunately, not playing 2 opponents due to their quarantine didn’t help. We did all we could and we played all the games we could possibly play with the time we had. It’s unfortunate that we lost the championship and automatic berth on an extra game that was literally scheduled at the last minute once the math and tie-breaking procedure was figured out.”
Melvin banged in a 1st half goal then stretched the lead to 2-0 with another goal in the 2nd half. West Columbus capitalized on a penalty kick to trim the margin to 2-1, but Melvin completed the ‘Hat Trick’ with his 3rd goal that padded the East Bladen lead to 3-1.
Junior Joel Johnson delivered assists on 2 of Melvin’s goals for the Eagles. The Eagles outshot West Columbus 24-5.
“We played everyone tonight and got all a good amount of minutes,” noted Raynor. “We were thankful we had the opportunity to play today and especially at home. We missed two games and tried our best to get them made up. The kids deserved every game they could get. Finally securing this game allowed us to acknowledge Drew Sholar who missed Senior Night festivities last week.
Raynor noted that, “Our energy wasn’t what it could be tonight. Making the changes and moving pieces around didn’t help. The guys got the result and everyone got to play making it a win/win for all of us.”
“I am hoping we get to continue to play this season,” Raynor stated. “Our kids have worked extremely hard not only this year but the seniors have over the last four years. People see our achievements (3 straight conference championships) and our records in conference (49-2) and that bothers them. What they don’t see is the work that goes into producing those results.”
Raynor explained, “None of our kids have had the games and awards handed to them. They have worked their butts off and earned everything they have achieved. This year the guys did something that a lot of people thought they couldn’t do. They did what our program has done over the course of four years, win and not give up goals.”
“Regardless of the outcome tomorrow, this group of kids and especially the seniors have been resilient and in my book are champions,” concluded Raynor. “They stepped into a league that had been dominated by Whiteville for years, and Whiteville didn’t score a single goal against us in four years. They stayed atop of the league by winning 38 of their 49 games by shutout. They never lost to St. Pauls and only gave up 2 goals to Red Springs in four years. They outscored their opponents 287 to 19 in those four years.”
Raynor added, “This group of seniors are winners and have proven it this year with the product they put on the field. Even though this is a tough pill to swallow, we did this to ourselves. If we are selected, we will be ready and will look forward to making sure we leave it all on pitch.”
The Eagles finished regular season play with a 4-1 league record and 8-1 overall mark. They will await Saturday’s release of the soccer brackets to see their postseason fate.
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