South Stokes 4, Surry Central 2

South Stokes kept kicking the ball high and over the goalie’s outstretched fingers in its 4-2 win over Surry Central Monday night in girls soccer action.

Three of the Sauras’ four goals came from set pieces with two direct kicks and one penalty kick.

Surry Central coach Matt Richardson said protecting against the high kick will definitely be a point of emphasis this week.

“That’s something we’re going to have to work on in practice,” he said. “We probably haven’t worked on that as much as we should have.”

Besides that, Richardson said he was pleased with the effort and intensity he saw from his team last night.

South Stokes scored its first goal in the sixteenth minute, but Surry Central responded immediately with a goal by Angelica Gonzalez in the seventeenth off an assist by Savannah Snow.

The Sauras managed two more goals before halftime off direct kicks, and the Golden Eagles were unable to capitalize on some opportunities they had in front of the goal.

“I was pleased at halftime, as pleased as I could be with a 3-1 deficit, with the effort and intensity that we showed,” he said. “I honestly felt like we outplayed them in the first half, we beat them to the loose balls and maintained possession.”

He attributed a lot of that to Raquel Carbajal and Margarita Cortez.

Carbajal plays mid right center.

“She battled exceptionally hard today, and was able to win several balls in the middle and make some decent passes leading to some goal scoring opportunities,” Richardson said.

He commended Cortez for doing a lot of the same at mid left, and seemingly always being in the right place at the right time.

Gonzalez scored her second goal of the night in the 55th minute off a pass from Sarah Chavez.

Down 3-2 with time to score again, the Eagles felt they had the momentum.

The Sauras connected on a penalty kick with ten minutes to go, making it 4-2 putting the Eagles in a hole.

“The penalty kick for them really took the wind out of us a little bit,” Richardson said. “I really felt like we had some momentum getting our first goal in the second half, and that caught us off guard.”

Richardson said he felt like the Eagles did a lot of good things, and once they start capitalizing on their opportunities, more wins are sure to come.

Surry Central will play Galax at home on Wednesday.