Seconds after Warrior coach DeLane Hayes commented on a tying Trojan goal making a big difference, junior Cory McCormick made it happen. His eleventh minute, second half goal was sent over a stack of players from both teams and past a blinded Andy Shiver to match East Wake's first goal, which came from Mike Paye - netted with 15 minutes left in the first.

"We came out in the beginning and played the way that I asked them to. After halftime we got the goal scored on us and we went back to playing kickball. We weren't playing the way we should play, just knocking the ball around. We came out the first fifteen minutes, we didn't clear the ball and they capitalized on it with a great goal," Hayes said.

But the home team took the high road, and its coach's halftime advice, and remained poised. Hayes stressed connectivity from the backfield to the forwards and argued against the unorganized "kickball" during his motivational speech.

Things did remain a bit scrappy for the 10 minutes or so after McCormick's goal, but a slight position adjustment made the Warriors click. Sophomore Griffin Hefner hadn't been bumped from the backfield to the front one minute before he exercised his ability to control the ball and finished for the 2-1 lead.

"Griffin really settled us down. He made the difference, he had a goal and an assist and helped us win the game," Hayes said. "Some games it comes, some games it doesn't, but we've had so many different combinations of people up top this year, and sometimes you have to flip through your dial and figure out which one's going to work."

Paye scored a second goal and the team's final goal of the night 16 minutes later in a similar situation to Hefner's - in which he had Garner keeper Jason Oxendine singled out - and produced with 8:34 left to play.

After the game Hayes said he can never overlook the efforts of seniors Turner Stevens and Jesus Resendiz. He said the two are like workhorses, and the ball rarely ends up in goal scoring position without a touch from one of the two Warriors.

East Wake (10-7-2, 8-3-1 as of the win) traveled to Knightdale Monday to play what would normally be the final conference game of the season, except for a rescheduled matchup with Clayton that will be played today (Wednesday) at 6:30 p.m. in Wendell. Results from the Knightdale road game were not available at press time.

Hayes said Knightdale, a team that has yet to beat East Wake in his two years as head coach, would be a serious contender in the teams' second meeting of the season.

"Victor Torres - that is a scoring machine, a great player and difficult to stop," he said. "They're probably one of the best, if not the best, of the teams coming out of the second half of the season. We're going to have to play very well."

As for this afternoon's matchup with Clayton, Hayes said it should be an all-out war. Clayton beat East Wake 4-0 in the last meeting, scoring three goals in the first 15 minutes of play.

"Because we got embarrassed over there we're looking to have some vengeance and hopefully beat them on our field," Hayes said. "It may have no implications whatsoever on the conference standings, but we want to prove it to ourselves that we can win."