ELIZABETHTOWN – Senior Justyna Gargala lit up the scoreboard with 4 goals (‘Hat Trick’ plus one) Wednesday night to lead East Bladen to a 6-1 non-conference girls soccer victory over Red Springs.
The Lady Eagles struck quickly as Gargala fired in her first goal in the seventh minute off of an assist from sophmore Ashley Hardin. East Bladen kept the pressure on but didn’t score again until the 28th minute when senior Cassie Hill knocked in a goal from outside the 18 yard box.
Six minutes later Gargala turned a feed from sophmore Sarah Johnson into a goal. Three minutes later Gargala struck again converting another feed from Hardin into the fourth East Bladen goal.
The Lady Red Devils scored their only goal off the rebound of a free kick that was initially blocked in the first half. Red Springs only had two other shots in the game, and East Bladen sophmore goalie Ting Lin was credited with 2 saves.
Johnson opened up the second-half scoring in the 55th minute when she finished a volley on a corner kick. “Sarah took and hit the lofted pass from Hannah (Devane) in the air and put it in the net,” said East Bladen Coach Jay Raynor.
Four minutes later Gargala converted a feed from Hardin into her 4th goal of the game.
“The last part of the first half and the second half were nice,” continued Coach Raynor. “We struggled a tad early on and seemed to just be watching. Part may be due to fatigue but honestly I think we just don’t anticipate what’s going to happen. Soccer is a sport that you have to be 2 and 3 steps ahead of the current play and situation. We have to do better with that.”
“We were more physical in the second half and that resulted in our play picking up and our winning 50/50 balls,” said Raynor. “We started beating them to almost every ball and that was huge. They have a very skilled midfield and attack. We were able to hold them to next to nothing the two times we played and that’s because we kept the ball away from their key players.”
“Cassidy (Davis) and Trinity (Carroll) played really well for us tonight,” added Coach Raynor. “Our attack with Sarah, Justyna, Hannah, and Ashley was nice to watch tonight. We had close to 30 shots on goal and were crashing the goal. Hannah was close several times to converting on the back post but was just out of reach. Once again we were able to get a lot of younger girls some game experience because of our attack.”
The Lady Eagles, now 4-0, will host Midway Friday at 6 p.m. in their Four County Conference opener.
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