Long layoff results in Pam Pack, North Pitt playing to soccer draw

Published 2:50 am Saturday, September 28, 2024

By Jason O. Boyd

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WASHINGTON, N.C. – Washington’s soccer team met at midfield and discussed Wednesday’s Class 2-A Eastern Plains Conference two-overtime soccer match with North Pitt.

They broke the huddle and headed to the sidelines, some with their heads down, others talking more about the outcome, and the rest scooping up soccer balls and moving the goals off the field.

The result, a 1-1 tie, was not what they expected after being off more than two weeks because of postponed games and practices due to the weather. Mistakes were made and a muggy night led to several players cramping up. A bottle of mustard was even given by coaches to players to fight those cramps.

Still, there were a lot of positive moments to build upon and, hopefully, more good weather to prevent another 15-day gap between games.

“Yeah, that’s exactly it,” Washington coach Jim Kozuch said. “I always start with negatives. We got outworked, we got outworked today.

“We were really bad in the midfield, and we know we’re not a high-scoring team. When we have a bad day at the midfield, it really sets us back.

We broke out the positives, of course. Our defense played really well. We gave up a PK, which it’s tough to give that one up, but at the same time, we did play well in the back right there.”

The Pam Pack (9-0-1, 0-0-1 EPC) looked strong in the first 20 minutes, going on attack and keeping North Pitt on its heels. Josh Spivey converted a corner kick into a goal that gave the Pam Pack a shot in the arm and an early 1-0 lead.

“Yeah, that was, we thought that was big for us because … early in the game to give us some cushion for the rest of the game,” Spivey said. “But I mean, we still had 60 minutes to play.”

North Pitt battled back and put the equalizer in the net during the 32nd minute on a penalty kick by freshman Brian Espino, who put a shot in the right side of the net.

“Yeah, honestly, it was sluggish,” Kozuch said. “Our effort wasn’t 100%, and our conditioning, our game speed did not match theirs today. Only in the back, which was fortunate for us to stop them from scoring any other goals.

“It’s gotta be better, and it will be.”

The second half and overtimes were a battle of attrition as both sides did a lot of movement in and around midfield but couldn’t put many shots on goal. Corner kicks sailed high and wide on both sides. Both teams nearly converted goals, especially Washington in the first overtime, but nobody broke through.

“So I mean, with the tie, that still gives us a chance to win the conference championship, so that’s definitely good,” Spivey said. “And as bad as we played tonight, I mean, we were still aggressive, but we played pretty bad as a team.”

Kozuch hopes the weather cooperates, the Pam Pack can go back to the drawing board and return to the kind of play that led to a 9-0 start and lots of optimism for the season.

“We were playing really good soccer before we had a two-week break,” Kozuch said. “I don’t want to blame anything, but all I can say is that hopefully over the next week or so, we can get ourselves back into game shape, and start moving the ball around, because today, we didn’t accomplish that at all.”

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