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Beaten by the Lady Hornets with scores of 6-1 and 6-2 in conference play, the East Davidson Lady Golden Eagles put aside what happened in the past, and marched into Ludwig Stadium to snatch a shocking 2-0 shutout over Salisbury.
“Who would have thought that we would beat Salisbury,” said senior Dee Lanier. “They probably came in here thinking that they had it, but we proved to them that they didn’t. Every time we beat Salisbury it is really exciting because they are like our rival in everything.”
East coach Jeff Church wasn’t nearly as surprised by the outcome, and credited much of the success to the team’s recent shifting of players.
“We have had some changes we’ve made to our team that have paid off for us,” said head coach Jeff Church. “We may have also caught them on an off night, but we are also not the same team they saw the last two times.”
The biggest change made that showed in the CCC rivalry game was goalkeeper Megan Byerly. She has played on the wing for much of the year, but when the need for her in goal arose, she stepped up to the challenge in a big way.
Salisbury attacked the net from all angles and distances trying to make anything work, but Byerly was always on guard. Her biggest save of the night came 14 minutes into the first half with the Lady Hornets applying heavy pressure.
Karen Presnell broke off the left side with a steal and crashed in to meet Byerly head-to-head. But the senior slid down to corral the ball in a scuffle, that kept the game scoreless.
Salisbury continued to make the better runs and passes through the first half, but East would make good on an attack in the 34th minute.
Mandy beck put on a clinic down the sideline dribbling past several defenders, before she crossed the ball to the middle. Lanier was on the other end after the ball was knocked down a few feet in front of the goal, and she nailed into the left side of the net.
Riding the sudden momentum, the Golden Eagles struck again moments later with Emily Nagle securing a pass that she one-timed into the net.
During the intermission, Salisbury sat on a hill in a state of shock, trying whatever it could to rebound.
They came out in a frenzy and had a chance to score on a breakaway by Jamie Dagenhart, but out came Byerly off her line to upend Dagenhart and make the save.
“Megan has been outstanding and has gotten a lot of help from some of my boys’ players,” said Church. “She has done a great job but she couldn’t do it without the defense either.”
As the game went on and the clock wound down, it was evident that Salisbury just could not get the monkey off its back. They began fouling and East did a great job of stalling as much as it could to burn the time. After what seemed like an eternity of stoppage time, East found itself moving on to the third round for the second year in a row.
The Golden Eagles (10-9) will travel to Shelby (13-7-4) tonight for a 7 p.m. contest.