Lady Gryphons' second-half flurry buries Lady Bruins 5-0
April 18, 2009 Rocky Mount High School
By Michael Lindsay
Wilson Daily Times
WILSON - With an early goal, it looked like Rocky Mount would blow the game wide open. But the Beddingfield girls soccer team staved off the visiting Lady Gryphons as long as it could before falling 5-0 on Friday evening.
"It's never fun to lose 5-0, but a lot of girls who don't get as many minutes play hard for a long time tonight," head coach Glenn Griffin said. "They got better while they were out there, and that's what you have to look for in that situation."
Without their leading scorer -- sophomore forward Jamie DeRatt, who was away for a volleyball competition -- the Lady Bruins were limited offensively, but held Rocky Mount to just one first-half goal.
Michelle Barringer scored the first of her two goals for the game about three minutes in for the early 1-0 lead. But the Lady Bruins (6-8), despite trailing 9-0 on shots, held the Lady Gryphons scoreless through the rest of the half
"First half, we were marking up and everything," said goalkeeper Vielka Givens, who finished with 17 saves. "We still didn't score, but we did pretty good. Second half, we just fell down."
In the second half, Rocky Mount (13-2) scored four, outshooting Beddingfield 21-0. Caroline Gray scored 12 1/2 minutes in, ricocheting a high shot in off the crossbar.
Then, Barringer turned and fired home her second goal inside the box 14 minutes later. Lacey Webb and Sandy Johnson added goals in the final 7 1/2 minutes.
"We really possessed the majority of the game," said head coach Drew Nick, the former Hunt coach. "We were lackadaisical at some points, but our goal was to possess the ball.
"Obviously, we had our opportunities in the first half, and for some reason it wasn't going in the goal. At halftime, we talked about us having opportunities and taking advantage of them, and we did that."
The Lady Gryphons dictated almost all of the game, pushing forward into the offensive zone, and used its overall team speed to quickly snuff out the Lady Bruins' offensive chances, which were fewer than usual without the speedy DeRatt.
"We're missing Jamie, who's one of the best scorers, and (teammates) think they can't score since she's not here," Givens said. "They need to get it in their heads that they can do anything without somebody."
Still, Beddingfield pinpointed several areas that it needs to improve upon, which will hopefully help as it heads back into the 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference against Southern Wayne on Tuesday.
"We have to mark better, talk better on the field and move better as a unit," he said. "Other than that, I told them to just go home and forget about it. Let's come back Monday and start having fun playing soccer again."
Following a game Monday against SouthWest Edgecombe, Rocky Mount looks to carry its second-half spark into Wednesday and pull even with first-place Fike in the 3-A NEW 6 Conference heading into the final week. |
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