West Bladen, East Bladen play to scoreless draw

The chances were rare.

The defenses were smothering.

Keepers Dylan Hernandez and Fox Sutton made saves when called upon.

The result: A scoreless draw Thursday between county rivals West Bladen and homestanding East Bladen on the soccer pitch that left both sides happy not to have lost, yet unhappy not to have won.

”You want a result,” East Bladen coach Jay Raynor said, “but, you’re not going home with a loss.”

First-year West Bladen coach Brett Jackson said, “We would have liked to win, but, at the end of the day, I think we pretty well matched up and I can’t complain.”

It was the second draw in 29 games since 2010 between the schools. The game on Oct. 18, 2010 ended 2-all. East Bladen has dominated the series, going 27-0-2 with 16 shutouts since 2010.

West Bladen is 0-2 and scheduled to host Pender on Monday. East Bladen is 0-1-2 and scheduled to play at West Bladen on Wednesday.

“We were trying to figure out a way to hold the ball, keep the ball and have everybody coming out together,” Raynor said. “We did better as the game went on. Early on we were just trying to hit home run balls. (West Bladen) did a great job being organized and dropping off and not letting us get behind them.”

The best scoring opportunities came in the second half.

East Bladen’s J.D. McArthur’s header bounced off Hernandez and the goal post at the 55 minute mark.

West Bladen’s best scoring opportunity came 12 minutes later when Jonah Bryan’s header bounced off the crossbar and Sutton.

A minute later, East Bladen’s Ishaq Algozy had his shot stopped by Hernandez.

West Bladen had a corner kick with three minutes remaining, but were unable to muster a shot on goal.

“We gave them a lot of opportunities,” Jackson said. “Luckily, they didn’t capitalize. We had some opportunities, but didn’t capitalize.”

Much of the first part of the game was played in the West Bladen end of the field, but the Knights defense wouldn’t allow East Bladen to mount serious threats.

“We do not do a good job of controlling the ball in the middle of the field,” Jackson said. “We’re young and we’re still trying to figure that out.”

East Bladen had 10 shots, including four on goal, five corners and were called for eight fouls. West Bladen had seven shots, including four on goal, two corners and were called for 10 fouls. There were no offsides calls.

“Fox did great with a couple of tough saves,” Raynor said. “Most of their shots were from distance, which tells us we’re doing a better job of being in the right passing lane or stepping to keep them away from our goal.”

Although rivals during the game, after the match the teams formed an interlocking circle at midfield to share encouraging words from both coaches and a prayer.