Leesville Road boys soccer
Leesville Road's Ryan Fleming (left) and Millbrook's Bradley Newman battle for possession late in the Pride's 2-0 victory Tuesday. Fleming scored a first-half goal in the win.
Fleming, Burns lead Leesville over Millbrook
Following the Leesville Road soccer team's 2-0 victory over Millbrook Tuesday night — the squad's fourth win in its last six contests — Pride senior Chris Hawthorne pinpointed how the Pride turned its season around.
After a tumultuous 1-4 start to the year, Hawthorne explained Leesville found a sense of urgency.
"We have been working harder on and off the field, in practice and in the games, and we've talked about people being more desperate on both sides of the field," he said. "Both in the attacking third and the defensive third, we needed to play harder. And that's been the difference."
Head coach Chip Stone explained more simply, saying "We were playing idiotic."
And now? "Our guys have bought into what we want to do, and they have played very well," he said. "At first, we weren't seeing the results for our effort. But now we have beaten some pretty good teams recently."
In the last two two weeks, the Pride have tied first-place Broughton, stumbled against Wakefield 2-0, but rebounded, knocking off Sanderson and Millbrook in back-to-back contests.
Against Millbrook Tuesday, after missing on a handful of breakaway opportunities, the Pride finally converted as Moseph Jackson-Atogi's pass found Ryan Fleming, and the senior forward ripped a shot past keeper Spencer LaCivita.
The score came with exactly one minute remaining in the first half, giving the Pride momentum into intermission.
Check out our highlight reel from Tuesday's match between Leesvile and Millbrook.
"That was so big because it puts the pressure on them, and now they were thinking about it," Stone said.
In the second half, Bo Burns — another Leesville senior — gave the Pride some breathing room, scoring a goal of his own, making the game 2-0.
"You can't give Bo an inch, he's too fast," Stone told assistant coach Nick Wheeler following the game.
And for a Millbrook team struggling to get on the scoreboard in recent contests — zero regulation goals in its last three conference matches — the lead was too much to overcome.
The victory improves Leesville Road's conference record to 6-4-1 heading into its regular-season finale at Wake Forest-Rolesville tonight (Wednesday).
The Wildcats (5-6) continue a brutal three-day stretch Wednesday, visiting Enloe. With a win, Millbrook would leap Wakefield (5-6-1) for fourth place in the conference. But a loss drops the Wildcats to fifth. (The top four conference teams earn automatic playoff bids. A fifth-place team would need a wild-card bid to make the postseason — or win the Cap-7 Conference tournament.)
Millbrook coach Matt Edwards explained with Wednesdays' contest being so important, "I'm a little worried about our guys getting too tight for it."
And after needing overtime to defeat WF-R 2-1 Monday and falling 2-0 to Leesville Tuesday, the Wildcats' offensive struggles are a concern.
"We are having a hard time scoring," Edwards shrugged. "And we brought that on ourselves because we weren't finishing. We had 27 shots on goal against WF-R.
"I think we are stressing a little bit too much about where the goals are going to come from. And this time of year isn't when you want to be stressing about that."
On the other sidelines, the Pride continues to close out its season on a strong note, and Stone explained the squad's hard work is paying off.
"Our guys have gotten better every week, and maybe it didn't show early, but I could see it," he said. "And the one thing that we've definitely got on our side is some serious speed. Even when we weren't doing well, our speed was giving everyone trouble. And it still is."
For Hawthorne, the Pride's recent success is a reward for the squad's early-season struggles as well as a disheartening 2008 season.
"Last year, we were hit with injuries, mono, pretty much everything," he said. "It was a miserable year, and people were apathetic. But we came out with the attitude this year that we weren't going to let that happen, and even though we had a hard non-conference schedule — it was brutal — but I think it prepared us well for the Cap-7.
"It has been a good journey this year, but we have shown our character as we have developed."
