Final from Marion Kirby Stadium, in the NCHSAA Women’s Soccer Playoffs:
Page Pirates 2, Weddington Warriors 1
Page(18-4-2)/Weddington(12-7-3)
Both teams scored early on in the soccer game, as Page struck first when McKenna Spencer scored for the Pirates to make the score Page 1, Weddington 0, with 37-33 left in the first half…Page up 1-0 and on their way to a solid night, at Marion Kirby Stadium…Weddington would not walk away, as the Warriors strike back, with a game-tying goal with 35:05 to go in the first 40 minutes of the contest…
Page 1, Weddington 1, and Page was in for a battle, but the Battleship belongs to the Pirates, and Page went to work to take over this game….
The Weddington Warriors kept attacking, but Page will show you that a good offense creates a good defense, and the Pirates have the personality that displays their true nature, and that is to control the ball…Everything that Weddington came up with, Page turned it away…
The Page Way has the Pirates keeping the ball on their half/side of the field, and what works best for them is keeping the ball on the offensive side of the field…Page overlaps and switches positions as good as any team you will ever see….Page takes over the ball at midfield, and they keep on moving up…Move up, Move up, Move up, and Page will do that and the ball will be in position for Page to start taking quality shots…
Quality shots, that is what Page was getting, and when Lexi Coker hit Sienna Coker with a nice pass, Sienna Coker put it away…The Coker shot came with 9:42 left to play in the first half, and that Sienna Coker shot was one of many on the night, and the Sienna Coker goal, proved to be the game-winner, but that wasn’t the signature shot of Coker’s night on the offensive attack…Sienna was a striker…She kept the Page Pirate Pressure on the Weddington goal the entire second…Her goal was huge, but her repetitious pressure was one of the major keys to this game….She would not take the pressure off, she kept it on the Warriors all night long, and especially in the second half after her goal had settled the game…
Page bring back memories of some of the old Greensboro Parks and Recreation soccer teams from the past, in particular, the Greensboro Strikers, and the Greensboro Kickers…Page is a team loaded with talented strikers, and the ball doesn’t have to go into the goal a thousand times…Just grab a lead and keep striking and the opposing team will not have time to get in position to move the ball to their side of the field…The opposing team is eventually playing defense all night long..
And Page can play some defense too….I didn’t mark them or cover them, but was impressed with their play/effort and I marked/wrote down their names, and that would be Reagan Neff, Lilly Stevens, Eliza Barnett, and Janie Carpenter….Those girls made life tough for Weddington, and they did what they do best, they got control of the ball, and pushed it on up the field, and allowed the Page strikers, to Move up, Move up, Move up….
Again, after the first 40 minutes, Page had taken a 2-1 lead over Weddington, and the score may as well have been 20-1…Page was in control…Everytime Weddington attacked, Page cleared….The saying for tonight was, Weddington on the Attack, and Page just keeps turning them Back, and Page would get the soccer ball and take it to their end of the field, and then the Pirates would go on strike…They began striking the ball, and putting the Pirate Pressure on the Weddington keeper…There was a shot by Coker from the left wing, there was another Coker shot with 14:07 left to play, then a Coker shot over the top of the goal, with 13:43 remaining in the game…Carlyle Lowe with a shot, with 11:16 to play, and the shots were not going in, but they were keeping the pressure on the Weddington Warriors keeper…You had Chela Parris(with superb ball-control) attacking the Weddington goal with 10:41 left in the contest, plus Anna Schmedes had a driving/forceful free kick that almost sent/drove the Warriors’ goalie back into her own goal, as Schmedes lit the keeper up, and that powerful kick came with 10:02 to play in the ball game…
Yes that pressure cooker Page offense, sure made for a good defense…But not backing up, but Page on the attack…And Anne Adams showed us a lot/ton of speed out there on the right wing…She left several Weddington defenders laying in their wake…Tonight’s game made for a sure spirited contest with intense action, but the action was on the side of the Page faction, this evening….
Another strong effort from Jonny Kate Harron, as she took a hard ball shot to the body, but she was back up running the length of the field in no time…Ava Richards had her share of saves in goal making a nice stop on a cross that was accompanied by a pressure kick that Richards turned away, with 35:25 to play…It was a scoop save by Richards 25:55 remaining in the game, and as the game wore on, it was evident that Richards had put up a barricade around her goal box, in the second half…Everything Weddington served up, Page turned it back…
Page now moves to (18-4-2) with the victory and will play for the NCHSAA Women’s Soccer 4-A West Regional Championship next Tuesday night, and the game will be on the road….Page will visit West #2 seed Ardrey Kell(24-1-1) next Tuesday night, at 7pm…..
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Here again, is the entire Page roster led by head coach Jeff Bateson and by assistant coach Joel Pritchard…..
1
Sienna Coker
FORW • So.
2
Jonny Kate Harron
MF • Sr.
3
Olivia Doyoyo
FORW • Jr.
4
Anne Adams
Fr.
5
Chela Parris
MF • Sr.
6
Janie Carpenter
D • Sr.
7
Madelyn Goas
FORW • Sr.
8
Carlyle Lowe
D • Jr.
9
Lexi Coker
Fr.
10
Eliza Barnett
D • Sr.
11
McKenna Spencer
FORW • Jr.
12
Reagan Neff
D • Jr.
13
Anna Schmedes
MF • Sr.
15
Izzy Werling
D • Jr.
16
Makenna Wilson
D • Jr.
17
Lilly Stephens
D • Sr.
26
Peyton Adcox
D • Jr.
28
Anika Dupreez
MF • So.
GK
Ava Richards
GK • Fr.
GK
McKenzie Marshall
GK • So.