03/28/2024
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ELIZABETHTOWN – Senior Maya McDonald and freshman Jackie Medina-Leal teamed up for a pair of 2nd half goals as East Bladen advanced with a 3-1 victory over Graham Monday night in the opening round of the NCHSAA Class 2A Girls Soccer Playoffs.

Coach Jay Raynor’s Lady Eagles, the No. 12 seed, improved to 13-2 and will play at No. 5 seed Roanoke Rapids (15-3) Thursday night in the 2nd round. Roanoke Rapids defeated Research Triangle 7-0 Monday.

Photos by Kenneth Armstrong – www.kenarmphoto.com

“Tonight wasn’t our best performance as a team but we got a good result,” stated Raynor. “We seemed slow to win or challenge 50/50 balls, mishit balls, and just seemed to react to what Graham was doing. We needed to apply pressure as one unit rather than as individuals.”

The teams played to a scoreless tie at halftime even though the Lady Eagles outshot Graham 11-2 in the opening half and 21-4 for the game.

Raynor continued, “We played well in spurts, but we weren’t communicating which is usually a sign of not being confident in what you are doing. This is a young group and they may have felt the pressure of the playoffs.”

A halftime adjustment paved the way for the Lady Eagles to score 3 goals in the first 16 minutes of the 2nd half. “Nene (Iveonna Ward) has been so strong for us with Maya up top all year,” shared Raynor. “When teams play high lines defensively, those two get behind them a majority of the time. Graham had played high line in the film I had watched.”

But the Lady Red Devils changed their strategy Monday night. “They sagged off and took away that space behind them,” noted Raynor. “At half I moved Jackie up top so she and Maya could combine. Those two compliment each other well.”

With only 1:05 gone in the second half, McDonald and Medina-Leal teamed up to score the 1st goal of the game for East Bladen. Twelve minutes into the 2nd half, sophomore Heidi Rebollar drilled in the 2nd Lady Eagle goal from 25 yards out.

“Moving Jackie up top allowed us to be able to control the ball better and keep it when we had position,” said Raynor. “Those three did a great job of holding the ball up and knocking it around.”

Three minutes later in the 56th minute of play McDonald and Medina-Leal worked a combination play with McDonald converting Medina-Leal’s pass into the goal that bumped the East lead to 3-0.

“Heidi wasn’t 100% but she had a solid game for us,” noted Raynor. “Maya was locked in and had a big night. She draws a lot of attention and is having to beat multiple people. She does well but we have a tendency to watch her runs. We need to go to goal with her and make runs off of her to elevate the pressure as well as give us more options. Jackie did well for us doing just that tonight.”

Junior Kennedy Flowers scored the only Graham goal with 7:57 remaining to play. “She took the ball 60 yards, beat 5-6 of our girls and put a hard shot past our keeper, said Raynor. “It was a nice goal but I thought we did a poor job defending.”

Raynor felt that “the girls played some great soccer at times. We got some great minutes from our substitutes. Alexus (Mitchell), Leah (McGill), and Miriam (DeVane) did well coming off the bench tonight. All of those girls were factors and made a difference in the game.

“Merritt (Martin) had a great night for us,” said Raynor. “She cleans up a lot of our mistakes and communicates well with her backs and goal keeper. Love her aggressiveness and her confidence. Reese (Hester) had 3 saves and did a great job in goal.”

Raynor added, “Acee (Campbell) dominated the midfield for us tonight. We put her in some difficult positions but she got the job done. Going forward we need to help her out more. Acee is instinctive and sees the plays/sequences developing. Often we get going forward and hold the ball to long and lose it forcing Acee to have to recover. Our mistakes in those transition moments are tough. We need to clean those up so our midfielders won’t have to be up and down as often as they are.”

“Cydney (Campbell) had a strong night for us as well,” pointed out Raynor. “Same can be said with Cydney in the fact that we are forcing her to transition way too much. That wears on the body and affects the legs big time. Cydney was aggressive and made some great plays as well as passes into our forwards tonight.”

Four Lady Eagle seniors — Victoria Rivera, Maya McDonald, Merritt Martin, and Alexus Mitchell — were recognized before the game.

“Proud of the girls and our seniors,” concluded Raynor. “We can put this behind us and move on. Need to focus our attention on a very good Roanoke Rapids team. This was a big one for this young group, and I hope we can build on it and have a great game on Thursday.”

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