East Bladen’s Ishaq Algozy (blue jersey) watches his shot slip past the Union keeper for a goal Monday night.
Sonny Jones / Bladen Journal
East Bladen’s Jayce Hatcher battles a Union player in front of the net during Monday’s match.
Sonny Jones / Bladen Journal
East Bladen’s Ishaq Algozy rips a shot toward the Union goal on Monday. Algozy scored three goals.
Sonny Jones / Bladen Journal
Davion Lewis makes a throw-in from along the sideline in the first half of East Bladen’s 4-3 win against Union.
Sonny Jones / Bladen Journal
ELIZABETHTOWN – Opponents know the play is coming. Stopping it for a full match is the challenge.
The play starts deep in the opponents’ zone with Davion Lewis throwing the soccer ball from the sideline to about five yards in front of the goal. It ends with Jayce Hatcher heading the ball into the goal.
It took more than 75 minutes of match time Monday before the play finally worked.
Hatcher’s header with under five minutes remaining off Lewis’ throw-in from the right sideline gave East Bladen a dramatic 4-3 win against Union in a Carolina Conference boys’ soccer match.
“We practice that play every day in practice,” Hatcher said. “The hard work is starting to pay off.”
Ishaq Algozy had a hat trick as the Eagles (6-3-3, 3-0-1 Carolina), who remained tied with Hobbton for first place in the conference. The teams played to a 2-all draw earlier in the season.
Algozy gave East Bladen a 2-0 lead in the first half with a blistering liner in the top left corner from about 25 yards out, then, coming down the left side, he struck a grounder toward the lower right corner that got past the keeper.
“I think we did great when we first started off,” said Algozy, who has scored 18 goals and has 7 assists this season. “(On the first goal), I was going right like my coach always told me, then cut in and had a shot or a pass. I just took the opportunity to get the shot.”
Algozy’s third goal off a rebound in front of the net with eight minutes remaining allowed East Bladen to regain the lead at 3-2 after Union (7-5-0, 3-2-0 Carolina) had tied it with a goal off a direct kick by Kevin Luna and a header off a corner kick by Noe Discua.
The Eagles lead lasted less than 30 seconds when Union tied it at 3-all with a close shot that bounced off the crossbar before being tapped in by the Spartans.
That set the stage for the play that everyone knew was coming and that Union couldn’t stop as Hatcher’s header found the back of the net following Lewis’ long throw-in.
“That was a great game,” East Bladen coach Jay Raynor said. “We came out and played the way we wanted to play. I thought we adhered to that for a majority of the first and put us in a good position up 2-0.
“You have to give credit to Union. We talked about not giving them any daylight. I think we faced a lot of adversity, but we weathered the storm.”
In the junior varsity game, Union won 8-0.
Sonny Jones can be reached at [email protected].