Arendell Parrott stays undefeated, rolls past Bethel Christian
By Scott Cole / Correspondent KINSTON FREE PRESS
Posted Mar. 21, 2016 at 9:38 PM
Updated at 10:20 PM
The first day of spring brought chilly, breezy weather to the region but one thing that was not cold was the Arendell Parrott Academy girls soccer team.
The Patriots ranked second in the NCISAA, hosted the Bethel Christian Academy Trojans. With wounded star forward Jensen Worthington limited to playing in goal, the Trojans had limited offensive capability and fell to the Patriots 7-0.
“It went pretty much as I feared that it would have. No Jensen means no offense for us,” said Bethel coach Gary O’Neal. “We did our best to hold them off defensively, and Jensen did a great job in net. She’s going to have to be our goalie for the rest of the season and she hadn’t done that in two years, but I thought she did admirably considering the amount of shots she faced.
Early on, the Lady Trojans did very well in containing the high-octane offense of Parrott Academy. The defenders stymied every effort by the Lady Patriots to get good quality shots, limiting them to only two in the first ten minutes. In the meantime, they were able to feed the ball a few times to Carrie Pridgen or Laura Fulcher in hopes of generating some offense.
“They played about six or seven girls back on defense. That makes it really difficult to score,” said Parrott coach Shivar Person. “We could possess the ball, but not get a lot of the good shots we needed. We had to be patient and wait. If you look, most of the goals we had were on cross passes that we had to crash the net to get. Bethel played very well on defense. Gotta give them credit.”
Adelyn Lowry broke the scoreless tie thirteen minutes into the first half on a long shot. Her shot, aided by the wind, rolled along the ground and trickled past a diving Worthington into the right front corner of the net. About 90 seconds later, Frances Barringer ran up the middle and passed it off to Sommer Holmes, who shot the ball wide of the net on the left side. While the shot missed, Megan Blair was there waiting to plunk it into the net for the second goal of the game.
“Lowry is a great player. If she didn’t score on every goal, she probably had an assist on every one. She is amazing and gave us fits,” said Coach O’Neal.
Holmes added APA’s third goal with 8:30 left in the first half. She sailed a shot that caught a hold of the wind and soared over a leaping Jensen Worthington to give the Patriots a 3-0 lead heading to intermission.
The halftime break did little to change the tempo of the game. Seven minutes into the period, Taylor Perry redirected a pass into the net to make it 4-0 APA and three minutes later, Perry picked up her second goal of the game seconds later. Lowry fired a shot that took a funny bounce and rolled between Worthington’s legs for the sixth APA goal. Parrott Academy’s seventh goal came with 7:30 left to play. In a three-on-one breakaway, Perry shot it right past Worthington into the left side of the net to earn a hat trick.
“We came out and our defense played well and helped to keep shots away from our goal and feed it right back to us on offense,” said Perry. “The key to this game was that we kept playing hard and kept the pressure up even while we were ahead. We never back down from the opening to the closing whistle.”
Offensively, Bethel had just two shots on goal the whole game; both of them came in the second half. The first was taken by Fulcher and the other was taken by Kelsey Worthington.
“They had no official shots on goal and had only a few that came anywhere near the net,” said Coach Person. “We’ve only allowed five goals all season and that is something we pride ourselves on. If we keep the ball away from our net, we will win every time.”
For Parrott Academy, the Lady Patriots kept Jensen Worthington busy. She stopped 16 of 23 shots and faced numerous other shots that either sailed over or wide of the net. Almost the entire game was played in the Bethel defensive zone.
By Scott Cole / Correspondent KINSTON FREE PRESS
Posted Mar. 21, 2016 at 9:38 PM
Updated at 10:20 PM
The first day of spring brought chilly, breezy weather to the region but one thing that was not cold was the Arendell Parrott Academy girls soccer team.
The Patriots ranked second in the NCISAA, hosted the Bethel Christian Academy Trojans. With wounded star forward Jensen Worthington limited to playing in goal, the Trojans had limited offensive capability and fell to the Patriots 7-0.
“It went pretty much as I feared that it would have. No Jensen means no offense for us,” said Bethel coach Gary O’Neal. “We did our best to hold them off defensively, and Jensen did a great job in net. She’s going to have to be our goalie for the rest of the season and she hadn’t done that in two years, but I thought she did admirably considering the amount of shots she faced.
Early on, the Lady Trojans did very well in containing the high-octane offense of Parrott Academy. The defenders stymied every effort by the Lady Patriots to get good quality shots, limiting them to only two in the first ten minutes. In the meantime, they were able to feed the ball a few times to Carrie Pridgen or Laura Fulcher in hopes of generating some offense.
“They played about six or seven girls back on defense. That makes it really difficult to score,” said Parrott coach Shivar Person. “We could possess the ball, but not get a lot of the good shots we needed. We had to be patient and wait. If you look, most of the goals we had were on cross passes that we had to crash the net to get. Bethel played very well on defense. Gotta give them credit.”
Adelyn Lowry broke the scoreless tie thirteen minutes into the first half on a long shot. Her shot, aided by the wind, rolled along the ground and trickled past a diving Worthington into the right front corner of the net. About 90 seconds later, Frances Barringer ran up the middle and passed it off to Sommer Holmes, who shot the ball wide of the net on the left side. While the shot missed, Megan Blair was there waiting to plunk it into the net for the second goal of the game.
“Lowry is a great player. If she didn’t score on every goal, she probably had an assist on every one. She is amazing and gave us fits,” said Coach O’Neal.
Holmes added APA’s third goal with 8:30 left in the first half. She sailed a shot that caught a hold of the wind and soared over a leaping Jensen Worthington to give the Patriots a 3-0 lead heading to intermission.
The halftime break did little to change the tempo of the game. Seven minutes into the period, Taylor Perry redirected a pass into the net to make it 4-0 APA and three minutes later, Perry picked up her second goal of the game seconds later. Lowry fired a shot that took a funny bounce and rolled between Worthington’s legs for the sixth APA goal. Parrott Academy’s seventh goal came with 7:30 left to play. In a three-on-one breakaway, Perry shot it right past Worthington into the left side of the net to earn a hat trick.
“We came out and our defense played well and helped to keep shots away from our goal and feed it right back to us on offense,” said Perry. “The key to this game was that we kept playing hard and kept the pressure up even while we were ahead. We never back down from the opening to the closing whistle.”
Offensively, Bethel had just two shots on goal the whole game; both of them came in the second half. The first was taken by Fulcher and the other was taken by Kelsey Worthington.
“They had no official shots on goal and had only a few that came anywhere near the net,” said Coach Person. “We’ve only allowed five goals all season and that is something we pride ourselves on. If we keep the ball away from our net, we will win every time.”
For Parrott Academy, the Lady Patriots kept Jensen Worthington busy. She stopped 16 of 23 shots and faced numerous other shots that either sailed over or wide of the net. Almost the entire game was played in the Bethel defensive zone.
