Senior Jackson Thornton could only watch as his team kept falling behind to rival East Carolina on Saturday. Thornton, the team captain, was one of 11 players who were sidelined due to injury for the match.
Thornton said it is painful to just look on while his team is getting beat on the field.
“It’s awful man, I wish I could be out there,” Thornton said. “I love the sport, and I can’t sit around and watch it too much more.”
ECU converted 3-of-4 kicks and scored one try en route to a 14-0 victory at the Method Road Soccer Stadium. The Wolfpack was 0-for-1 on kicks and failed to score the entire match. Sophomore Alex Walton said State’s inability to score was due to ECU.
“I’ve got to give ECU credit, they played a heck of a game,” Walton said. “They were a very good team. The score might not exemplify how close the game really was.”
The Pack made several trips to the Pirates goal line, but was unsuccessful each time in converting these chances to points.
Coach Jeremy Goodwin was not unhappy with his team’s performance, but he was disappointed with the lack of execution.
“They did pretty good,” Goodwin said. “We just could not capitalize on our scoring opportunities.”
The loss drops the Pack’s record to 10-5-1 and snaps State’s two-game win streak. This was the second time State had played East Carolina this year, the previous meeting was in the State Championship Tournament game on October 29th. The Pack took the State Championship 15-13.
Walton said ECU entered Saturday’s game looking to seek revenge for their loss last fall.
“They were a little upset about that. It’s kind of a rivalry,” Walton said. “All of the in-state schools, we kind of have this rivalry between us just because we see each other three or four times a year.”
Goodwin said his team just couldn’t match ECU’s effort.
“ECU just wanted it a little bit more today,” Goodwin said. “We were a little flat, and they took advantage of it, they found the holes, they found the gaps, they ran harder and punched it up.”