Sanderson boys soccer
For highlights of Wednesday's Broughton/Sanderson soccer game, click on our video.
'Snake-bitten' Spartans fall to Broughton
Minutes after Sanderson sophomore Dylan Ejlali ripped a 30-plus-yard goal, knotting Wednesday's match with Broughton at 1-1 in the second half, the Spartans found themselves knocking at the door again.
After Taylor Wyatt's free kick sliced past the Broughton goal, teammate Casey Francis retrieved the kick, and fed another pass toward the front of the net. After a deflection, senior Glenn Scott got off a clean shot, only to have the kick glance off the Broughton keeper and into the cross bar. The ball unluckily bounced out instead of in, and Scott's second shot was again deflected by a Capital and kicked away from goal.
For the Spartans, the near-miss could have swung the game in their favor. But instead, six minutes later, the Capitals' Harrison Delbridge netted a goal, giving Broughton a 2-1 lead, which stood up until the game's conclusion.
Afterward Sanderson head coach Todd Worley downplayed the loss, focusing on the competition on the field.
"It was a good game, and I thoroughly enjoyed it," he said. "The two teams played hard and they played well. We had our opportunities, and they had their opportunities. In the end, we scored one really nice goal, and they scored two really nice goals."
The 2-1 defeat was Sanderson's regular-season finale, dropping the Spartans to 7-4-1 in Cap-7 Conference play. The finale also concludes a recent difficult stretch for the Spartans, who have dropped three of their last four contests. The squad's lone victory came against Wake Forest-Rolesville, which is winless in league play.
But Worley concluded the Spartans' record doesn't necessarily reflect their play.
"People can say we are losing a few games here or there, but we are playing really well right now," he said. "I think we are playing as well as we have all year. I wish we could win these games, but, for whatever reason, we are snake-bitten right now."
The coach explained the Spartans do need to take advantage of their opportunities.
"We had some [chances] that we just didn't get off," he said. "The disappointing thing tonight was there were some things we needed to get off better, and we didn't fire."
Though Worley commended Ejlali on his long-distance score. "It was a very nice goal," the coach said. "It was the right time to hit it and everything went well."
Broughton and Sanderson were deadlocked at 0-0 at intermission, though Bjorn Johnsen gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead just a minute into the final half.
With the conference tournament set to begin Monday, Oct. 26, the Spartans have a few days to regroup before hosting Enloe. The match begins at 6:30 p.m.
