Despite Knightdale being a young, promising team and East Wake being the more experienced squad, but one that has struggled to finish in many of its games this season, experience prevailed and the Warriors (4-1-1 in the Greater Neuse River Conference) rallied in the second half to secure the 4-1 victory.

After Knightdale junior Jaymi Caballero scored the first goal of the game in the 14th minute, the home team answered with goals from Trey Johnson in the 21st minute and Griffin Hefner in the 27th to obtain the halftime lead.

Warrior coach DeLane Hayes said the Knights (2-5) might have taken to the "we are trailing" illness the Warriors are all too familiar with after East Wake's scored its second goal. Prior to that point he said the Knights not only had his group on the ropes, they were pounding on it for the first 20 minutes of the game.

"These guys are much better than they were last year. In terms of ball control and actually trying to play the game of soccer this is the best team we've played," Hayes said of Knightdale. "Everybody else is just trying to send the ball long to their best players instead of trying to build it."

Trailing 2-1 and by all means very much in the game, Knightdale's downfall came on began on another goal from Johnson in the 52nd minute. The senior captain fed his own through ball and throttled past a trio of Knightdale defenders for the self-assisted goal. Sophomore Mike Paye scored two minutes later after being fed on five quick touches from the backfield.

"[It] was a tough loss but I know that it will be a learning experience that we can bounce back from," Knightdale coach Andy Vaglio said. "We played well offensively and missed several opportunities on net, while defensively we had several correctable mishaps."

Hayes was the first to agree the Knights could have prevented a pair of goals - "one off a goal kick and then on a little dinky goal they didn't clear out of the box," Hayes said.

The Warriors saw several close looks in the final minutes, but headers and shots flew just high of the crossbar. Johnson had another break toward the goal, but his shot was deflected, then saved by Knightdale keeper Ty Richardson when East's Daniel Cabrara rushed in for the putback.

"We have a lot of work to do to prepare for round two of conference play," Vaglio said of the games that began Monday against Smithfield-Selma. "Our goal is to stay the course and work for continual improvement. If we can accomplish these goals good thing will happen."

The Knights are currently sixth in the conference. A fifth-place finish earns the team a playoff berth.

As for the Warriors, Hayes said the second half performance from his team was one he would like to present every day.

"Nothing bad against a team we lost to, but we dominated Southeast Raleigh (the conference leader at the time) last Monday, yet lost 2-1," Hayes said. "We haven't played Clayton, but there's no reason we can't do what we did last year, and with even more authority."

Last year's Warriors enter the state tournament a one seeded team with a record of 20-2 and dropped at home to Fuquay-Varina in the opening round to go down in the books as the second-best soccer team in East Wake High School history.

"They have to make the decision in terms of their attitude and effort toward how we're playing the game. If they focus there's no reason we can't repeat this, but it isn't going to be easy. We're not a hidden team any more. Everyone knows about us and our players and they're coming straight for us," Hayes said.

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