The Eastern Wayne Warriors defeated the Rosewood Eagles 3-0 on Monday night at the Bryan Multi-Sports Complex.
The win improved Eastern Wayne’s overall record to 4-0-1, which meant the Warriors started off the season undefeated through five games for the first time since the 2017 season.
A year ago, the chances of Eastern Wayne having a girls’ soccer program seemed unlikely because on the first day of practice for the 2021 soccer season, Warriors head coach Robert Grant said he only had five girls to come to tryouts.
Grant didn’t give up having a girls’ soccer program and encouraged anyone at the school to come out regardless of their soccer experience.
“At the start of last year, five girls come out (to tryouts) … I told each one of them, ‘go back and bring a friend. I don’t care if they’ve ever played at all. Just bring a friend,” Grant said. “That’s exactly what they did, and these girls stuck together, and (we got) 11 (players) off that team, and we picked up some freshman and a couple of girls here and there.”
Even though the Warriors had little soccer experience, their athleticism and the bond they built as teammates showed last season, and the Warriors finished last season with a 7-9-2 overall record.
This season, after spending the entire offseason training together, the Warriors have started the season on another level.
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In their first four games, the Warriors went unbeaten, and during that four-game span, they scored 13 goals and surrendered just two defensively.
Looking to continue their streak, the Warriors got off to a strong start in Monday night’s match when Eastern Wayne striker Taylor Waters opened up the scoring in the 22nd minute with a goal.
Waters scored again to start the second half when she dribbled down the right side of the field and hit a low, driven shot into the bottom left corner of the net to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead in the 45th minute.
In the 67th minute, Eastern Wayne forward Jenna Mitchell put away the game for good when she collected a rebound that was blocked by a Rosewood defender and tapped it into the back of the net to give her team a 3-0 lead, a lead which Eastern Wayne held onto until the final whistle.
“We just kept grinding it out, and we kept attacking,” Grant said. “(Rosewood is) a physical team, (Maldonado) does a really good job, but we held on.”
On Tuesday, the Warriors defeated Wayne Preparatory Academy 2-0 to improve to 5-0-1, and the Warriors will look to win their sixth match in a row when they face Wayne Christian (0-1) on Thursday at 6:15 p.m.