Knights stun Warriors in 79th minute

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 14, 2015 1:46 PM

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Megan Mozingo's goal off a deflection in the 73rd minute seemed to put Eastern Wayne in perfect position to force overtime Wednesday evening.

But Northern Nash's Rebekah Beal silenced the Warriors' celebration.

The junior striker delivered the decisive dagger early in the 79th minute as the Knights shocked the seventh-seeded Warriors, 3-2, during their first-round match in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 3-A girls' soccer playoffs.

Beal finished with two goals and one assist.

"I was scared for a couple of minutes, thinking we might not pull through, but we got it together and scored," said Beal, who upped her season total to 39 goals.

Eastern Wayne seized a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute when Brennan Dove lasered a left-footed shot into the upper left 90 that hit the post and bounced into the net. Mozingo notched the assist.

At least three defenders, sometimes four, draped Beal and prevented her from finding any open seams in the offensive third of the field. She received some assistance from Harley Marshall, who constantly won second balls and sent them forward to help pressure the Warriors' defense.

Sweeper Cameron Dove cleared numerous balls to help preserve Eastern Wayne's one-goal advantage at halftime.

"I think we got a good pep talk at halftime, realized we needed to step up physically and mentally," said Beal, who punched in her first goal -- with three white jerseys surrounding her -- in the 53rd minute.

"They all collapsed right on me, I couldn't do much with it (but) I just found an opening and hit it through."

Six minutes later, Beal beat a Warrior defender down the left sideline and gained possession of the ball. She dribbled into the 18-yard box, passed off to Olivia Bunn, who easily tucked away the Knights' second goal of the half.

"It boiled down to when they had to make plays, they were in the right spot at the right time when we had to make plays defensively," EW head coach Jorg Wagner said.

"We were a little bit flat-footed coming out of the half. We tried to limit 5's (Marshall) second touches on the ball. We were not sharp in our delivery of the dead balls, I thought the corners were floated a little bit too long. The will was there, definitely, but the execution wasn't as pin-point as we needed it today."

Still, Eastern Wayne (10-7-0 overall) worked to claim its first playoff victory since 2010. Madison Tallarida served the ball into the box and Knights goalie Kaitlyn Michaels got a glove on it. Mozingo followed the play and buried a shot just inside the near post for the 2-2 tie.

Then Beal provided the clincher.

"You have a player like Rebekah, who is capable of doing damage and she did it at an absolutely killer time for us that late in the game," Wagner said. "We had just come back and got to the front post (for a goal) when we weren't supposed to. I thought it was a pretty even game, really come to think of it.

"Whoever had the last big chance was going to end up winning."