"There are two things that you can control in every game," Hayes said. "You can't always control how well you play, or how the opponent plays or what the officials call.

"But you can control the effort that you make and the attitude you have."

Hayes is laying the foundation for his program on those two principles.

"Luckily, the guys are buying into that philosophy," he said.

East Wake is off to an atypical start by Warriors standards -- the team is 8-1 overall and 3-0 in the Greater Neuse 4-A. The only loss was 3-2 to Millbrook.

"Millbrook has a really good, team and it showed when it beat Broughton, which was ranked No. 1 in the state at that time," Hayes said.

"But from our standpoint, we were down 2-0, came back and tied the game and lost at the end. We played with a good attitude and with great effort."

That same sort of effort helped the Warriors defeat West Johnston 2-1 in overtime on Monday.

Freshman Mike Paye struck a corner kick across the middle where Ramon Gallardo headed it into the goal in overtime.

"Our skills were not very good and we were not playing that well," Hayes said. "But we kept a good attitude and we kept making a great effort.

"Looking at last year's results, that was a game that we might have lost."

Freshmen are making a significant contribution.

Luis Aragon leads the team with nine goals and classmate Mike Paye leads with six assists.

The play of freshman Macon Watkins in back has allowed Trey Johnson (eight goals) to move up.

"Watkins has been phenomenal," Hayes said. "Trey has been terrific, but we couldn't have moved him if Macon wasn't playing so well."

Hayes said the Warriors are playing with a lot of confidence, but know that Monday's Greater Neuse game at Clayton is a big one.

"Clayton is the defending league champion and is playing very well now after getting off to a tough start," Hayes said.

"We want to be the conference champion and to do that, we need to play well against Clayton."

GREEN HOPE ON TOP: Green Hope is No. 1 in the N.C. Soccer Coaches Association 4-A boys soccer rankings.

The Falcons led a group of eight area teams that are ranked among the top dozen in the state.

Following Green Hope on the list are No. 3 Apex, No. 5 Broughton, No. 7 Durham Jordan, No. 9 Athens Drive, No. 10 Leesville Road, No. 11 Chapel Hill and No. 12 Fuquay-Varina.

The 12 teams are 33-9-5 overall and 28-4-1 excluding games with each other.

Cardinal Gibbons is ranked No. 2 among 2-A schools and Durham Science & Math is No. 2 among 1-A teams.

Both Gibbons and S&M are members of the Mid-State 1-A/2-A Conference, as are Pittsboro Northwood (No. 3, 2-A) and Cedar Ridge (No. 5, 2-A).

HIGH SCHOOLS

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