ST PAULS – Senior Malcolm Bolden poured in a ‘Hat Trick’ plus 1 of 4 goals Wednesday night as he led East Bladen to a 5-2 Southeastern Athletic Conference boys’ soccer victory over St. Pauls in the regular season finale for both teams.
“Malcolm had a career night and was unstoppable,” noted Eagle Coach Jay Raynor. “His pace is unmatched and he took his time when it came to finishing tonight.”
Bolden banged in a goal in the 14th minute to give the Eagles an early 1-0 lead. St. Pauls answered with a tying goal 10 minutes later. Senior Jacob Nixon turned a feed from Bolden into a goal that vaulted East back in front 2-1 in the 26th minute.
“Gambled and made some personnel changes as well as a system change,” noted Raynor. “Moved Jacob up top to compliment Malcolm, asked Chace to be more attack-minded, and also brought Yontee Dobson and his 6’6” size to midfield. Was some big moves but it paid off.”
Raynor continued, “Jacob was a difference maker and was the perfect compliment with Malcolm. Have been afraid of losing Jacob’s presence in midfield but was able to have Yontee step up and fill that roll for us. Ronnie Covington subbed in for Yontee and had a career night. The way he played tonight, you would never know he is a freshman.”
Two minutes into the 2nd half Bolden capitalized on an assist from senior Omar Atkinson and knocked in his 2nd goal to pad the East Bladen lead to 3-1. In the 51st minute, Bolden popped free again and drilled in his 3rd goal of the game to grow the lead to 4-1.
“The tipping point was the 3rd goal for us for numerous reasons,” said Raynor. “It fired us up. Omar made a play in our half. He stole the ball and made a 40 yard run and sent the ball to Malcolm. To see your centerback make that play, make that run, make the pass, and then Malcolm finished it like he did… it fired the guys up and took the wind out of St. Pauls’ sails.”
St. Pauls trimmed the margin to 4-2 in the 62nd minute, but Bolden struck again 4 minutes later with his 4th goal of the game.
“Jamie Delgado, Chace (Butler), and Alex Hildago dominated the midfield and helped us continue to return balls back into their half of the field,” said Raynor. “Chace has had two of his best games this week. Proud of him being a heck of a teammate tonight. He was a leader on the field tonight.”
Raynor added, “Tyreon and our backs did great. Nathan (Howell), Zac (Metz), and Omar come up big when it was time to a make a play. They made great decisions tonight and did not panic. Tyreon dominated central midfield. Physical game and he handled that well.”
Junior Lee Barnes recorded the victory in goal for the Eagles and was credited with 7 saves. East Bladen outshot the Bulldogs 10-7 in the 2nd half and 20-15 for the game.
“Lee came up huge with some big saves throughout the night,” noted Raynor. “Most were routine saves hit right at home, but he also came up with two extremely important diving saves late in the match. Lee is playing out of his mind. He’s in the zone and in my opinion is the best keeper in the league and one of the top in our region. We put him in some bad situations at times and he cleans those things up for us.”
Raynor concluded, “Speed, size, and athleticism. Those are our strengths. We made sure to use those to our advantage. Combine that with the effort of our guys as a team, and you get a good result against a great team. Great performance for us as a team. Our playoff hopes came down to this last game. We have dropped to 30th RPI after the loss Monday. We knew a win would hopefully get us in. We knew we needed to go for it.”
Coach Jay Raynor’s Eagles finished 4th in the SAC-7 with a 4-6 record and posted an 8-9 overall record. East Bladen is expected to receive a NCHSAA Class 2A playoff berth when the brackets are announced on Friday.
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