03/28/2024
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ELIZABETHTOWN – Sophomore Garrett Melvin fired in a pair of second-half goals as East Bladen pulled away for a 5-0 victory over Trinity in the opening round of the NCHSAA men’s soccer play-offs Saturday night.

The Eagles opened the scoring midway the first half when senior Greyson Heustess took a crossing pass from junior Gabe Barber and laid the ball off to junior Jay McGill for the goal. “Great ball movement and a well-timed run by Jay who calmly finished low past the keeper,” said Eagle Coach Jay Raynor.

Heustess was pulled down in the box several minutes later then stepped up and hit the penalty kick low and left. “We usually go with Jake (Evans) on our PKs and have a ton of faith in him, but Greyson was fouled and has put in a lot of time after training working on them,” said Coach Raynor.

“We started extremely slow and seemed to be turning the ball over where we shouldn’t have been,” continued Raynor. “Trinity was a technical team and could move the ball. We made some poor decisions but we were able to get out of the half unscathed.”

Raynor noted that “2-0 is the scariest score in soccer, so we talked about putting another goal in early and we did. We were a much different team in the second half.“

Key to the second half according to Raynor was Garrett Melvin.  “We had a heart to heart at half and I told him it was time for him to stop over analyzing and just play.  He made a huge difference in the midfield with his ability to run at players and use his creativity to open up space.” In the 50th minute, Garrett Melvin took a pass from McGill and heel-flicked it into the goal.

Evans knocked in a contested shot 7 minutes later. “That was big,” noted Raynor. “Jake didn’t back down and did what he had to do to score the goal.  He’s been playing lights out and that finish, under pressure, knowing the keeper was coming in hard, speaks volumes of his character – the team comes first!”

In the 62nd minute, Garrett Melvin hit a shot from 25 yards out off a bad clearance from Trinity’s center back. “It was a rocket!” said Raynor. “He hit it one time and it rocked the back of the net.”

In that 12 minute span of the second half, the Eagles scored 3 goals – 2 by Garrett Melvin. “That’s the player we knew he could be,” said Raynor. “He left it all on the field tonight.”

Raynor praised the play of McGill, “He did an outstanding job at the 10 position and handled it well. That finish he had was clinical.” McGill also had an assist to go with his goal.

“Greyson had a great night as well,” continued Raynor. “With his stats teams are focusing on him. He was being man marked in the first half but he was still finding ways to get open. That also creates space for Jake and Gabe.”

Heustess’s goal gave him 80 in his career and that broke Brooks McGill’s East Bladen career scoring record of 79 goals. Heustess also had 2 assists to tie Brooks McGill’s career assist record of 78 assists.

“Gabe had an amazing night as well,” added Raynor. “His runs and speed on the flank is hard to match. He played some outstanding service into the 18 and just missed scoring.” Barber finished with one assist in the game.

The Eagle defense only allowed one shot in the entire match. “The backline of Jay McKoy, Ezequiel (Arteaga), and Keshaun (Davis) played outstanding from the first whistle,” said Raynor. “They all 3 were locked in. They made the night easy for Spencer (Scott) who had limited touches on the ball.”

“I thought B. J. (Monroe) was solid up top and pressuring the ball,” stated Raynor. “He forced several turnovers and seems to play well with Greyson up top.” Monroe had an assist in the game.

“Will Hester and Pierce (Melvin) did well in the midfield,” continued Raynor. “Will has stepped in and been huge for us. Pierce has been switched on for us the last few weeks and locked down defensively in the midfield.  He was also able to get more into the attack tonight.”

“All in all we played a heck of game,” surmised Raynor. “We were flying around, pressuring them and not allowing them to be comfortable. I think we did a good job of using our system to take them out of theirs.”

The main concerns after the game for Coach Raynor were the slow start and set pieces. “We must start fast and enforce our will, and those set pieces are crucial late in the season.”

The Eagles, now 18-1-2, will host a second round game against Dixon, a 2-1 winner over Wallace-Rose Hill.

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