9th Ranked Warriors roll past Graham 8 -2 in Men's soccer

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Story courtesy of Keith Thomas

Pictures courtesy of Paul Thompson and Anita Richard (link)

It only took 30 seconds for the 9^th ranked Western Alamance Men’s soccer team to score its first goal in last night’s home win against the Graham Red Devils and by the end of the evening, the Warriors had lit up the scoreboard by an 8 – 2 margin.   After a couple of weeks of soccer games, Western climbed into the 3-A State rankings for the first time this season.  Their first real test will come tomorrow night at home against 4-A county rival Southern Alamance Patriots with the JV game beginning at 5:30 and the Varsity game immediately following.  

In the opening seconds of last night’s game, Paschal Geoffrey stole a pass from Graham’s defensive back and crossed it over in front of the Red Devil’s box where the goalie broke up the pass intended for Adam Richard; however, Jackson Lilly was in the right place at the right time and found the back of the net for the Warriors first goal.  Western (3 – 0 – 0) was off and running at that point.

Within minutes of Lilly’s goal, the Warriors went up 2 – 0 as Geoffrey got his first assist of the game when he found Jacob Thompson open for the score.  Mid-fielder Josh Price then dropped a nice ball at the 10^th minute to Richard around the 18-yard line and Richard dribbled by the defender and the goalie to score Western’s 3^rd goal of the game.  It didn’t take long for Geoffrey to get into the scoring column as he stole another pass and took the ball 30 yards to boot it by Graham’s goalie as WA led 4-0.   The final score of the half came in the 35^th minute when Richard assisted Junior Cam Brooks for a goal.  Brooks made the keeper commit to the ground, then made a quick touch to the inside to find the back of the net and put Western up 5 – 0 at the half.  

Western opened the 2^nd half with a junior to junior combination goal as Chase Lewis assisted Matthew Horner with a nice touch pass inside the 18-yard line for the score.  The Warriors were not finished scoring as freshman Chris Golden put Western up 7 – 0 after receiving a corner kick from Geoffrey.  Geoffrey picked up his second assist of the game while Golden was making his first appearance as a Varsity player.  The Red Devils were able to fight through Western’s defense and record their first goal around the 65^th minute.  With the score 7 to 1, Horner got his second goal of the match when he stole the ball from the Graham defense and then shot it past the goalie as he was being tripped.  The Red Devils recorded their second goal near the end of the game, but it was too little too late, Western wins 8 – 2.

As mentioned earlier, Western will take on Southern Alamance at home Wednesday evening.  Please come out and support both the JV and Varsity teams tomorrow night.