Warriors Fall to Knights in Conference Tilt

Box Score

Mar. 24, 2010

Warriors Lose Third in a Row

The Knights of Northern Durham High School came to the Webb Football stadium last night, and came to play.  Northern jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the early goings of the game and never looked back, taking home a 19-3 win over the Warriors in the second conference game of the 2010 season for both teams. 

The win was the first for Northern on the season, and is the first conference win (PAC-VI or Conference-4) for the Knights in the team’s 7 year history (the program began in 2004), as the Knights move to 1-2 (1-1 Con.-4).  The Black and Red drop to 2-4 (0-2) on the year with the lose.  The Warriors got two goals on the evening from Matt Knott, receiving and assist from points leader Matt Roach once, and one goal from Landon Williams, unassisted.  The Knights were paced by juniors Jonathan Williams and Michael Rice, who scored 8 and 5 of the teams 19 goals on the night.

Defensively, the Warriors got off to a slow start, but despite the score, showed improvement in the one on one game, forcing the Knights to score the majority of their goals from the crease.  After the first three goals, freshman long stick midfielder Rufus Terry was dropped down to close defense to mark the Knights best player, after which he was effectively shut down.  While this went on, the trio of Tyler Eller, Zach Barnes, and Holden Jones did work to make sure the Knights worked even harder to get passes to the crease.  In goal, Christian Tilley made a career high 20 saves and only allowed 13 goals through two and a half quarters of play, before being pulled by injury and replaced with Larry Hester, who stepped in the second game in a row and made 5 saves.

Coach Farabee only had positive things to say after the lose.  “As a first year program we have to continue to look beyond the score to evaluate our progress.  I thought we played with effort tonight, but we were playing a team with more experience and technical ability than we possess right now.  I thought our team played well against Northern Durham and I continue to be proud of what we are accomplishing in this first year.  I was especially impressed with Rufus Terry’s individual defense and Christian Tilley’s performance in goal.  We will only get better, and as I tell our players, our time will come.  These first steps are never easy.”

The Warriors are done for the week in terms of games.  Next game is Monday the 29th at Walter Williams High School, while the Knights face off against Orange High School tonight, and travel to Conference-4 opponent Riverside High School Friday.