–Classic Northwestern 4-A soccer battle ends in tie
16 October 2007By Zachary Colburn
REYNOLDS - October 15, 2007 - It seems that everytime that Reynolds and Watagua play each other this late in the season, there is always something up for grabs, and Monday night at R.L. Dalton Stadium was no different.
With first place on the line, the Pioneers overcame a 2-goal deficit in the second half to force overtime and then neither team could score through the two overtime periods as the game ended in a 3-3 tie. Watagua hangs on to first place in the Northwestern Conference at 8-1-1, while Reynolds remains in second place at 7-2-1.
"It seems like most of the Reynolds-Watagua games are tight games," said Watagua coach Doug Kidd. " Reynolds is an excellent team, they scored some great goals tonight."
After a pre-game moment of silence before the game for Reynolds Vadym Vasylenko, who was having surgery on his leg that he injured in the last game against Freedom, Reynolds came right out of the gates in full throttle with a fast and furious attack to start the game. That tenacity would pay-off in the 10th minute as Reynolds Eric Vorst took a Kye Grooms cornerkick and planted it right in the net for the early 1-0 lead.
The lead would not last long however, as Watagua’s Luke Robertson managed to sneak past the Rocket defense and get a shot off past the outstreched hands of Reynolds goalkeeper Jonathan Sorrentino to tie the game at one in the 18th minute. Vorst looked to be in prime position to score his second goal of the game in the 30th minute as he managed to get the ball past Watagua goalkeeper Jonathan Shine, but Vorst was unable to keep control as the ball rolled out of bounds.
With time running out in the first half and it looked as though it would be tied going into halftime, but Reid Usedom had other plans though as he took a cross pass from Matt Freer and outfoxed Shine with a little cross-over move to score the goal with less than a minute left in the half to send Reynolds into halftime with a 2-1 lead.
After scoring his first goal of the game with less than a minute left in the first half, Usedom scored his second goal of game less than a minute into the second half, as Jake Sides stole the ball from the Pioneer midfielder and made a nice cross pass to Usedom who found the net with Sides getting credit for the assist and giving the Rockets a 3-1 lead early in the second half.
Finding themselves down by a pair of goals early in the second half, Watagua looked to someone to provide a spark and they got one. Junior Jennings Rex scored his first goal of the game on a header from a corner kick at the 45 minute mark of the game to cut the lead and half, 3-2. Four minutes later, Rex blasted a shot past Sorrentino that was too hot for him to handle as Watagua came all the back to tie the game at three with 31 minutes left.
Over the final minutes of the game both teams had opportunities to score the winning goals, but both goalkeepers made save after save to keep their respective teams in the game. Sorrentino made a pair of spectacular diving saves to keep the Rockets in it while Shine relied on a little help from the goalpost to keep the Pioneers in the game and forced overtime after 80 minutes of play could not determine a winner.
In the first overtime session, it was Watagua that set the tempo putting three shots on net as oppossed to Reynolds, who only put one shot on net in the first 10-minute overtime session but prevented any further damage as Sorrentino was able to stop a shot from Watagua’s Robertson point blank to force the second overtime.
The second overtime saw Reynolds come out with that fire they had at the beginning of the game to put six shots on net and the defense did their part as well, preventing Watagua from getting any shots on net. There was no winner in the game after both teams had played 100 exhausting miniutes, as the game ended in a tie, 3-3.
"Offensively, we played well enough to win tonight." Said Reynolds coach Patrick Gladys on his teams’ performance. "We didn’t finish as many chances as we should have, but they’re (Watagua) a good team and it was a good game."
Reynolds had a definitive advantage in the shots department, out-shooting Watagua 32-17 including 25-14 in regulation. Both goalkeepers played pivotal roles for their teams as Shine stopped 20 shots for Watagua while Sorrentino had 9 saves on the game for Reynolds.
"A tie does help us, but there is still work to be done." Said Coach Kidd on what this game means to his team, who still has conference games against East Burke and at Alexander Central, along with a home non-conference match-up with T.C. Roberson.
Reynolds will continue their campaign towards another conference championship with a non-conference battle against Patton High School out of Morganton on Friday night at R.L. Dalton Stadium before finishing up conference play with a home game against South Caldwell and the season finale at McDowell next week.
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