ELIZABETHTOWN – East Bladen’s Eagles opened the NCHSAA Class 2A Boys Soccer Playoffs Wednesday night with a 3-0 victory over Elizabeth City Northeastern.
East Bladen, now 16-3-1, advances to a second round game at North Johnston. North Johnston edged North Lenoir 2-1 in their opening round game.
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Photos by Kenneth Armstrong
Junior Garrett Melvin banged in a header for the first East Bladen goal. “Jake Evans sent a perfect ball for Garrett to run onto and finish with a powerful header that beat the keeper,” said East Coach Jay Raynor.
Freshman Malcolm Bolden ran onto a goal kick that was sent into midfield then blasted a shot past the keeper to push the East Bladen first half lead to 2-0.
A Bolden assist led to a goal for senior Jon Von Rupp in the second half. “Malcolm beat the left back and slotted a perfect ball for Jon to run onto,” stated Raynor. “Malcolm had a heck of a game and they couldn’t do anything with him on the edge. Jake on the opposite side had the same results.”
Raynor continued,”I thought we played a decent game. We were the aggressors for sure and seemed to dominate the game. There were some nerves out there. We started strong on the attacking side but we had some issues in midfield.”
“Jay McGill had a huge game for us. He seemed to be winning every 50/50 ball in midfield,” noted Raynor. “He brought it tonight and stepped up to provide Gabe (Barber) with some cover. Gabe had a solid performance and orchestrated some great attacks on goal and sequences coming out of midfield.”
East Bladen outshot Northeastern 32-4. “We left some chances out there,” added Raynor. “At times we made the game harder than it had to be. Missed shots or passes or just doing too much. At this point the team that makes the least mistakes and capitalizes on the other teams mistakes usually advances.”
Raynor continued, “We started getting just about any look we wanted on the attacking side of the game and started forcing the game. Several chances from point blank range we didn’t finish. We’ve got to do better. Our speed on the flanks and up top make us hard to play. Time after time we were behind them and missed the final pass or didn’t convert the shot.”
Junior Jacob Priest recorded the shutout in goal for East and was credited with 2 saves. “Jacob didn’t have to do much as Jay (McKoy), Freddy (Wooten), and Chase (Starkloff) cleaned a lot up in front of him,” said Raynor. “Chase was filling in for (injured) Milton (Estrada). Our backs had a phenomenal game.”
“All in all it was a big win,” concluded Raynor. “The energy was amazing. From the guys flying around making plays, to the fans on the sidelines, the energy was electric. I’m glad the guys were able to play in front of a big home crowd. Appreciate the energy and atmosphere our fans helped create.”
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