Sanderson boys soccer
Leesville Road's Chris Hawthorne (right) angles for position on Sanderson's Nick Cioffi during Wednesday night's match. The Spartans pulled out a 4-2 win, improving to 10-0-1 this season.
Spartans' strong second half halts Pride
Following Wednesday night's 4-2 victory over Leesville Road, Sanderson soccer coach Todd Worley admitted his squad was drained before the match even began.
Just two days after a dramatic late-game win over Millbrook, the Spartans were spent on all levels.
"We knew the Millbrook game took a lot out of us — emotionally, physically, mentally," the coach said. "When you don't have all three of those, you're going to struggle."
And the match-up with the Pride presented Sanderson with another precarious position.
On the heels of an impressive 5-1 win over Wakefield, Leesville Road was undoubtedly riding high, and Worley wondered if his squad could put forth the intensity it needed to win. "We had to combat our tiredness and their energy," the coach shrugged.
In the game's 19th minute, the situation looked more dire as Leesville Road forward Bo Burns raced past the Spartan defense on a breakaway, and hit the back of the net. Worley lauded Burns' score — and later praised the senior's overall play — but pointed out it was fueled by a Sanderson miscue.
Highlights from Sanderson's 4-2 win Wednesday.
"Bo had a really nice goal, but that goal was actually set up because our players were slow in the box," he said. "We knew that he could do that. And that was the disappointing thing. I thought at that moment we were playing pretty well, we were taking it to them. But we're giving up some goals that we shouldn't."
Similar to their match against the Wildcats two days earlier, the Spartans dug themselves a 1-0 first-half deficit. The only positive was nearly 60 minutes remained, which was ample time for Sanderson to get back on track.
And five minutes before half, sophomore Zack Knowles corralled a ball around 20 yards out, and as Leesville's defenders converged on him, passed off to JP Rafferty, who netted the goal.
Sanderson carried the momentum into the second half as Rafferty tacked on a second goal in the 53rd minute. Less than two minutes later senior Casey Francis did the same. And in the 63rd minute, Jacob Mouw added another score, extending the Spartans' lead 4-1.
In recent contests, Sanderson has become complacent after gaining the lead, but that definitely wasn't the case Wednesday.
Although Leesville Road's Wes Atkinson converted a penalty kick later, the match's outcome was never in question following Sanderson's 10-minute scoring outburst early in the half.
Sanderson keeper Matt Boyd put together "another great game," said Worley afterward.
The coach also singled out senior Jackson Parker for his continued excellence patrolling the defensive third.
"It goes unsaid too often, but Jackson is having a great season back there," the coach said, adding the defender played despite battling a hip flexor injury.
In the second half, Parker was visibly limping, but never left the field.
After the game, Worley emphasized that the Spartans needed to break their routine of falling behind, only to pull out the victory.
"I told them after the game eventually that they are not going to score," Worley reasoned. "But right now our attack is working pretty well, and we had other opportunities to score.
We were able to fight through, and we got a good win."
With the victory, Sanderson improves to 10-0-1 heading into its home match against WF-R Monday, Sept. 21. Two days later, the Spartans visit Enloe.
Leesville (3-6) visits Millbrook Sept. 21, with a week-long layoff following the match.
