Perryville's Zach Strong exacted a measure of revenge against Shadrach Ekeh and West Nottingham Academy. Strong scored his first career varsity goal in the second minute of overtime to life the Panthers to a thrilling 7-6 triumph over the host Rams Friday afternoon. Nick Ports dribbled down the right side of the penalty area, got a step on a Ram defender and sent a cross through the box. Crashing the net from the left side and faced with an acute angle, Strong put a shot into the upper 90 to the short side.
"It was a real tough angle," said Strong. "I tried to get my right foot on it which is my dominant foot. I got the outside of my foot on it and I just tried to place it in and that's what happens." Strong's goal spoiled a brilliant performance by Ekeh. The senior from Lagos, Nigeria scored all six WNA goals. The Panther junior had high praise for Ekeh. "He's probably the best person we've played," said Strong. "He had a double hat trick and that's just crazy." It was redemption for Strong, who played goalie last season, and yielded three goals to Ekeh in a 4-2 Rams victory. Strong scored nine goals as a freshman on the JV squad and moved back to forward this year when goalie Trevor Prevost transferred from Harford Christian. Chris Hawley scored three goals for the Panthers (3-1) and Jon Hamamcioglu, Gunther Prevost, and Kevin Makach each added a goal. Perryville led 5-1 at halftime before Ekeh almost single-handedly brought the previously undefeated Rams (5-1) back. He tallied twice early in the second half and added another to make it 5-4. Hawley's third goal of the game gave the Panthers a two-goal cushion but Ekeh took the ensuing kickoff, dribbled around several Perryville defenders, and scored to make it a one-goal game again. Ekeh scored the equalizer with about seven minutes left to force the extra session. Strong was at a loss to explain what went wrong. "I honestly couldn't tell you," he said. "I think we just started taking them too lightly. We got a big lead and their one kid, number 10, he's really good. We just started playing too lightly and didn't take them serious and they just started coming back and scoring a couple goals to make us go into overtime." Despite squandering a four-goal lead, the Panthers were able to regroup. "At that point we had to realize it's still a game," Strong said. "We say this at practice and we're starting to preach it, we've got to play every minute like we're down one goal." Perryville made sure Ekeh never got a chance to score a seventh goal and overtime didn't last long thanks to Ports' pass and Strong's finish. "Amazing," Strong said. "It feels wonderful." Comments are closed.
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