Grace Christian’s Austin Lang, Eagles defeat Trinity Academy in soccer

Grace Christian School soccer coach Roman Pibl said Austin Lang loves the crowd, and the crowd loves him back.

Playing in front of a small, yet active and supportive student section, Lang, along with fellow seniors Black Ballance and Seth Negus, ended the regular season in spectacular form, defeating Trinity Academy of Raleigh, 4-1.

The Eagles students, who held up signs to support Lang, Ballance and Negus on senior night, had plenty to cheer for, as Lang scored all four goals for Grace Christian.

“Austin is probably one of the best players in the conference, if not the state,” Pibl said.

Lang wasted little time getting the Eagles on the board, scoring his first goal inside the third minute. His next came 10 minutes later on a header in front of the net. He posted a first-half hat trick, even though there was some friendly debate on if the final goal of the first half should have been credited to Lang or Ballance.

Ballance kicked the ball from the left side of the formation from about 30-yards away. As the ball sailed near the net, Lang rose above the crowd, appearing to get a piece of the ball with a header. Either way, it found the back of the net, giving the home team a 3-1 lead at halftime.

Trinity’s Josephy DelGrosso scored the lone goal for his team.

Lang’s final goal would come with 7:53 remaining, a straight-on shot from 40-yards out.

“There’s no better way to put it,” Lang said on his final time playing in front of the home crowd. “It’s an awesome feeling. All the fans cheering built our confidence up.”

Turning point

Grace Christian getting on the board right away. It scored less than 2 minutes into the game. That was the just the boost the Eagles needed to get going.

“We always score a lot, generally we’re kind of a high-scoring team, so that’s kind of expected on our part,” Pibl said.

Three who mattered

Lang, Grace Christian: An obvious choice. The senior finished with four goals and was clearly the best player on the field.

Ballance, Grace Christian: With his size and physical style of play, Ballance’s presence was a nice compliment to Lang for the Eagles.

Andrew Morrow, Grace Christian: The goalkeeper was solid in the net all night for the Eagles, just allowing one goal.

“Andrew is a good goalie,” Pibl said. “His understanding of the game is just great. He always works hard, always out there telling the team what to do, so he is a great goalie back there.”

What worked

Team work. Sure, Lang got credit for the goals, but many of the Eagles played a role in the three-point win over Trinity.

“Sometimes you look at the best player,” Pibl said, “But there some nice 1-2-3 passing. It was nice to see the team work together. We were missing that kind of passing attack.”

Looking ahead

At 12-5 overall and 4-4 in the conference, Grace Christian will now have to wait and see if they earned a bid to the state tournament.

“I think we’re OK,” Pibl said. “If we won a couple of games that we shouldn’t have lost, maybe we would be higher, definitely. But we should get in. It’s a numbers game, until you sit down and meet with every team in the state, you never know.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Grace Christian’s Austin Lang, Eagles defeat Trinity Academy in soccer."