By By Jamie Sullivan/The Meridian Star
Nov. 16, 2001
The West Lauderdale Knights improved to 2-0 Thursday night by knocking off intracounty rival Northeast Lauderdale 2-1.
"I have to credit Northeast, they came out ready to play tonight," said West Lauderdale Head Coach Alex George. "It was an extremely hard fought game on both sides of the ball."
Northeast Head Coach Jim Mathews was not pleased with the way the Trojans faired the Knights.
"We didn't play our game," said NEL Head Coach Jim Mathews. "We tried to play the long ball, like West [Lauderdale] instead of passing the ball like we are supposed to do."
Northeast could not get anything going; offensively, however they did manage to score one goal against a stiff West Lauderdale defense.
The Knights got an early goal from Anthony Thomas to take a 1-0 lead in the first period of play.
West Lauderdale got another goal from Brandon Rodgers late in the first period to sport a 2-0 halftime lead.
However, the Trojans would not give up hope, as Matt Moore scored on a rare double assist from Paul Tate to David Williams to Moore for the goal.
"We let them narrow the score to 2-1 late in the game," said George. "It was sort of a wake up call for us, but I think my guys did what was needed to do for the win."
Moore's goal cut the Knight lead in half, but NEL could not manage to score any more as they lost the contest 2-1.
"We should have came back after Matt scored, but after losing my sweeper, it was too late," added Mathews.
The 1-1 Trojans will travel to Ray Stadium to tangle with the Wildcats, and West Lauderdale will be in action against cross town rival Southeast Tuesday night.
Jamie Sullivan is a sports writer for the Meridian Star. Email him at jsullivan@themeridianstar.com, or call 693-1551, ext. 3226.