RAMS SHUT OUT EAGLES

On Wednesday night in Moravian Falls, the final two unbeaten teams in the Mountain Valley Athletic Conference met on the pitch and the Starmount Rams made a very clear statement about which team belongs atop the standings. With a 5-0 win against the Wilkes Central Eagles, Starmount improved to 6-0 in the league and 10-1-1 overall while the Eagles fell to 5-1 and 12-2 overall. “They were better than we were tonight; they outplayed us and they outworked us. Our big talk was, we weren’t getting first touch — it didn’t matter which section of the field — we didn’t get first touch,” Wilkes Central Head Coach Jim Caudill said. “And I saw a glimpse of that at Forbush, we were a little shell shocked. “We wanted the game to slow down and it didn’t, it got a little faster and that’s when we made mistakes.” The Rams scored the game’s opening goal in the ninth minute when Jordan Anderson switched the field with a long pass from the right wing to the left where Victor Maya, the Rams’ leading scorer on the year, finished off a shot near post. The Eagles held their own in the early going but failed to create many chances on goal. The game turned against Wilkes Central sharply in the 25th minute when goalkeeper Kyle Barger, who played excellently in the face of the potent Starmount attack, was shown a yellow card. Barger leapt to punch a cross away from goal but collided with a Starmount forward in the process and was given a card for the offense. Jonathan Flores converted from the spot against backup keeper Parker Langston to double the Starmount lead. “The game was a little chippy anyway, which I understand and it’s fine and it was chippy both ways,” Caudill said. “I think (the referee) did a good job it was just (Barger’s) hands ended up in bad position when he’s going through the crowd. I see pro keepers making that mistake; it’s just the heat of the moment. He’s trying to do his job and it’s just unfortunate that we get the PK in it.” In the second half, Wilkes Central moved to a 3-6-1 formation to clog up the middle of the field and it did frustrate the Rams inasmuch as they weren’t able to complete the same passes they were making in the first half. But that forced Starmount to attack on the wings where the Rams used their speed and two of their three second-half goals came on the counter. Marlon Meija scored off an assist from Andres Ocampo in the 55th minute and 10 minutes later, Ocampo found the net himself as he finished off a corner kick sent in from Maya. Maya completed his brace, and put a bow on the win, with a long-range strike in the 73rd. “The first half, we spread it out and really had some power behind our passes. In the second half, we got lazy because we were getting tired and Wilkes Central was running us to death,” Starmount Head Coach Cody Cook said. “That made us get rid of the ball quicker and we were lazy and we weren’t making good crisp passes like we were in the first half. They have a really good team and hats off to them for putting pressure on us the entire second half.” Wilkes Central was more successful at creating chances in the second half as they fired off 10 shots compared to just three in the first 40 minutes. But of those 10 shots, only two troubled the senior keeper Lucas Zamora and he kept his sheet clean with just three saves in the game.

RAMS SHUT OUT EAGLES

Photo Credit: Brandon Moree

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