Published: August 29, 2008 01:14 am            

East boys cruise; girls fall in doubleheader

FAIRMONT — Take it from coach Jim Pearcy, East Fairmont’s boys’ soccer team is serious — dead serious — about making this season special.

“These seniors are looking at this year as their last hurrah,” Pearcy said. “It’s their last opportunity, and they want to make a mark for East Fairmont. They’re taking it to heart.”

That determination was plain to see Thursday night, as the Bees used some early offense and a zip-tight defensive effort for a 5-0 victory over visiting Buckhannon-Upshur at East-West Stadium.

The Bucs’ girls topped East, 4-2, in the early game, also played at the stadium.

Chad Jefferies quickly opened the contest with a goal, assisted by Andrew Licata, and East (2-0, 1-0 in the NCAC) didn’t look back from there.

Corey Murphey added another tally at 23:59 — a high, arching shot in the right corner — that narrowly got over the outstretched arms of goalie Zach Lewis to make it 2-0.

Nolan Harvath doubled the advantage soon after, scoring unassisted from about 15 feet out at the 9:44 mark, and netting his second of the half, with some help from Michael Ebbert, just as time expired.

When he wasn’t dropping shots into the net, Harvath was running the offense, and his performance did not go unnoticed by the Bees’ coaching staff.

“Nolan was unstoppable tonight. He was a man playing possessed,” Pearcy said. “We’re always telling him how much time is left, especially under two minutes. We want to make a two-minute drill out of it and make sure everyone’s head is up and looking for the goal.

“We really don’t have to give him any direction. We always like to go out of the half with a bang, and he knew what he needed to do.”

As did East’s defense, which held the Bucs to six shots — three in each half — and made goal keeper Garrett Saiko a spectator at times.

“Garrett didn’t have to do much,” Pearcy said. “We like to see him get some more work, but the defense makes his job a lot easier.

“I don’t worry about the back line. They’ve been doing it for years.”

The Bees, who attempted 18 shots themselves, got another goal from Jefferies — this one a header after a feed from Murphey in the left corner — for a 5-0 cushion with 6:18 remaining.

Pearcy liked the effort from Harvath on down and feels even better things are in store.

“As we progress through the season, the guys are going to get a lot better. You can just tell,” Pearcy said.

In the girls’ game, Buckhannon rallied from a 2-0 deficit with four unanswered goals and a road victory.

“Don’t get me wrong; we did some good things. We attacked. We started strong. But we made too many mistakes to win a game,” East coach Brad Mills said.

The Bees took the early lead with goals from Jenna Wood (20:01) and freshman Allison Fansler (14:38). Fansler also assisted on Wood’s score, her sixth of the season.

But things didn’t necessarily go East’s way from that point on as the Bees fell to 1-2 in all games and 0-1 in the NCAC.

The Bucs tied the contest at 2-2 with around 30 seconds left in the first half after Bees’ goalie Nikki Nuzum initially made a diving save. However, the ball somehow slipped out of her grasp and Laura Mason promptly dropped in the rebound.

“She made the save, but it just squirted out — that’s going to happen, especially on the wet turf,” Mills said of Nuzum. “Then our inexperience showed and we kind of lost our mark and the girl snuck in on us.

“With (that much time) left in the half, that was crushing for us.”

Mason received another fortunate bounce in the second half — her second score jutted off the left crossbar — to bump the lead to 3-0. Danielle Beets added a goal with 51.9 left to close the scoring.

Both teams travel to Musselman Saturday.

E-mail Nick Cammuso at ncammuso@timeswv.com.

        

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