Sanderson explodes for five second-half goals, ousts Garner in 4A soccer
What had the potential for a dramatic finish midway through Wednesday’s NCHSAA 4A boys soccer first-round match instead turned very quickly into a most lopsided victory for the Sanderson Spartans.
Bolstered by goals from Brady Lozaw and Joey Daly just 21 seconds apart early in the second half, Sanderson rolled to a 5-0 victory over host Garner.
Alfonso Turcios, Tyler Downing and Scott Spickard also added second-half goals for the Spartans (13-6-4), the 18th seed in the 4A East who will now visit second-seeded Ashley in a second-round match on Saturday.
After a relatively even first half which saw both teams garner a handful of scoring opportunities, things turned in Sanderson’s direction in stunningly swift fashion early in the second half.
Sanderson broke a scoreless tie when Lozaw scored on a header with 37:54 remaining in the second half. Lozaw then set up Daly’s goal, which came on a hard shot into the upper right-hand corner of the net from about 15 yards out, moments later to put Sanderson ahead by two.
“Coach (Todd Gurley) told us we needed to come out and keep playing our game like we have all season,” said Lozaw, who later assisted on Downings’ goal, of the second half. “We came out a little slow, but in the second half we came out strong. It’s happened before, we get one goal and get rolling from there.”
Turcios removed any lingering doubt about the outcome when he scored with 11:04 remaining to push Sanderson’s lead to 3-0. Downing scored with 8:01 remaining before Spickard’s penalty kick completed the scoring with 3:36 remaining.
Sanderson out-shot Garner, 12-0, in the second half and enjoyed a 15-2 shot advantage during Wednesday’s contest.
“I thought Garner was a well-organized team, there’s a lot of talent on that team and they got after it,” Gurley said. “Second half we made a couple of adjustments, Turcios got in and really made a difference for us up top, our guys did a good job of getting the ball to our flanks, and, obviously, we finished in the second half.”
Garner, meanwhile, saw its season end at 10-10-1.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our kids, Sanderson played great and made some adjustments,” Bondurant said. “It was an entertaining game, I don’t think that score was indicative of the game.
“Once they got that second goal, you could see our kids’ heads hang. That was a tough one.”
This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 11:36 AM with the headline "Sanderson explodes for five second-half goals, ousts Garner in 4A soccer."