Spread the love

ELIZABETHTOWN – Senior Malcolm Bolden celebrated Senior Night with a ‘Hat Trick’ of 3 goals plus an assist Wednesday night to lead East Bladen to a 4-2 Southeastern Athletic Conference boys’ soccer victory over West Bladen.

Bolden delivered an assist to junior Jamie Delgado who scored the1st Eagle goal in the 25th minute. “Jamie was a difference maker. We were able to do more tonight because of him,” said Eagle Coach Jay Raynor.

Three minutes later Bolden converted a pass from senior Jacob Nixon into a goal for a 2-0 East lead.

In the 31st minute a foul in the box against the Eagles led to a penalty kick that West sophomore Kevyn De La Cruz Labra hammered in to pull the Knights to within 2-1.

Bolden answered 1 minute before halftime taking a pass from Delgado and racing past a number of West defenders and drilling in a low hard shot with his left foot to put the Eagles up 3-1.

“That was a big goal right before halftime,” noted Raynor. “I thought that goal took the wind out of their sails and gave us some breathing room.”

“We dominated the second half but couldn’t find the back of the net,” stated Raynor. “We committed another silly foul in the box and gave up another PK.”

Knight senior Joshua DeLeon fired in the penalty kick to trim the margin to 3-2 in the 69th minute.

The Eagles answered a minute later as Bolden completed his ‘Hat Trick.’ “Malcolm took a pass from Tyreon Graham and beat 3 West defenders to hit a hard shot high past their keeper,” said Raynor.

“I thought we played one of our best games yet,” noted Raynor. “We moved the ball and had some combination plays. We were vocal and communicated well. I thought we played great as a team for roughly 70 or so minutes.”

East Bladen outshot the Knights 20-8 – 10-4 in each half.

Raynor added, “It was a great Senior Night and we sent our Seniors out with a big win. Pretty special night for them all, but especially for Malcolm – Hat Trick (6th of the season) against your county competition on your Senior Night. That’s pretty special. He was locked in and made some spectacular goals.”

Graham, Nixon, and Erik Hildago drew praise from Raynor for their play in the midfield, particularly on 50/50 balls. The coach also pointed out the play in the back from Nathan Howell, Omar Atkinson and Zac Metz as well as that of goalie Lee Barnes.

“I thought West gave us all they had,” continued Raynor. “They moved some players around from the last time we played. Cade (Allen) came up big several times for West in goal. The most impressive was a save he made with a 1-on-1 with Malcolm. That was a huge play.”

Raynor also singled out the good play of Alex Hildago, Gabriel Algozy, Chace Butler, Lafon Monroe, Yontee Dobson and Ronnie Covington.

The Eagles honored 8 seniors between the jayvee game and the varsity game. They are Nathan Howell, Malcolm Bolden, Jacob Nixon, Erik Hildago, Yontee Dobson, Tyreon Graham, Lafon Monroe, and Omar Atkinson.

The Eagles, now 3-5 in the SAC-7 and 7-8 overall, will be idle until they entertain Red Springs on Monday, Oct. 24th. West Bladen, now 0-6, 5-8-1, will travel to Red Springs Wednesday night.