DURHAM – Freshman Iveonna “NeNe” Ward scored 2 first-half goals that propelled East Bladen to a 3-1 non-conference girls soccer victory over Class 3A Durham School of the Arts Monday.
Ward knocked in the 2 goals in less than a minute, and they came with 7:08 and 6:14 remaining in the opening half to give the Lady Eagles a 2-0 lead.
“The first goal was a sequence that started with Jackie (Medina-Leal) who played a perfect ball to Maya (McDonald) who one-touched it to Nene who calmly finished from close range,” said East Coach Jay Raynor. “The second goal was generated in similar fashion as we were able to win the ball in midfield and send it back into Maya and Nene. The ball got over to Nene and she finished it right under the bar over the keepers’ outstretched hands.”
Raynor continued, “Both were two outstanding goals. It was good to finally get those on. We seemed to have lived on their half of the field but hadn’t been able to get a breakthrough until that point. We couldn’t catch a break. We had some great looks early on but they were turned away. DSA’s backline did a great job of marking and not letting us have anything easy.”
“Nene had a breakout performance tonight,” said Raynor. “Those two goals in quick succession blew the game open for us. Scoring like that is deflating for a team. Nene has a great work ethic and compliments Maya and Jackie extremely well.”
The Eagles led 2-0 at halftime and outshot DSA 8-2 in the opening half and 18-6 for the game.
Six minutes into the 2nd half, DSA answered with what Raynor termed a “great goal.” The Lady Bulldogs appeared to have tied the game in the 52nd minute on a 45-yard free kick, but the goal was called back due to it being an indirect kick and resulted in a goal kick.
“That was a huge break for us,” noted Raynor. “That goal seemed to have shifted the momentum to DSA. The wind came out of their sails a bit on that. We stayed composed and continued to put the ball into our forwards and into their backs.”
McDonald broke through and finished off a shot on goal with 10:21 remaining “That sealed the deal and put the right amount of distance between us,” stated Raynor. “We did a great job of regaining our composure after their scores. The girls remained positive and encouraged each other.”
Raynor praised the play of midfielders Acee (Campbell), Heidi (Rebollar), Anna (Miranda), and Cydney (Campbell) “who all did a phenomenal job for us tonight. I can’t say enough about Heidi and Acee. Those two young ladies battled all night tonight. It was a physical game and they handled everything that was thrown at them. Acee wasn’t feeling her best but got out there and battled through it playing all 80 minutes. Heidi was up and down the field, she was tired but she also battled through it.”
“We adjusted our system and went to something to counter how DSA wanted to play,” explained Raynor. “They wanted to play short and through the midfield. We layered our system and forced them to go around us. They played a lot of balls right into us and allowed us to generate a direct attack immediately. The system also played up to everyone’s strengths.”
Raynor noted, “Our backline (Merritt Martin, Zoe Smith, and Molly Evans) were great for us as was Reese (Hester) in goal. They played tough and communicated effectively tonight. They dealt with DSA’s speed and were able to clean up any loose ball that got through midfield.”
“Jackie had an excellent right as well,” stated Raynor. “She was banged up throughout the night but she never backed down. Jackie is tough and loves to compete. We tasked Jackie with marking their stronger players out wide and she did a solid job at that. I thought where she opened up the game was her ability to transition from defending to attacking as quickly as she did.”
“This was a great game for us,” said Raynor. “The win is icing on the cake. We needed a tough test like this. We needed to see where we are. To get on the road, travel a few hours, battle a very good and more technical side, and be in a playoff caliber match and come out on top says a lot about this young group. We have a lot to work on but tonight was a good barometer of where we are. It also showed us things we need to continue to work on.”
East Bladen had defeated DSA 4-2 in a playoff game last spring.
The East Bladen jayvee girls will travel to Dixon tomorrow for a 4:30 match.
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