Just two minutes into Wednesday afternoon’s game with Maine, N.C. State got the only opportunity it needed — a penalty kick.
Freshman forward Alan Sanchez found the back of the net 2:10 into the game to give the Wolfpack 1-0 win, snapping a five-game winless streak.
“I’m thinking pick and a side and go,” Sanchez said. “It’s just the side I pick. If the goalie blocks it, he blocks it; if I score, I score. But I pick a side and go. Put a goal in the first 15 minutes — it really calms you down. It helps you come back for more.”
With the early lead, the Pack put pressure on the Black Bears, out-shooting Maine 16-4.
“That really helped us,” said coach George Tarantini. “An early goal like that really takes the pressure off.”
Over the previous five games, opponents outscored the Pack 13-4. The high point on the stretch was last week’s scoreless tie with then-No.1 Clemson.
Senior midfielder Rami Ghanayem said Wednesday’s 1-0 win provides a bright spot for State with an ACC match against Virginia Tech on Sunday.
“We’ve lost a couple of games,” Ghanayem said. “This is going to be a big moral boost for us.”
Coming off a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Boston College, Tarantini said the Wednesday match-up provided a challenge for his team, but a challenge he said the Wolfpack needed to conquer.
“Wednesday games are very difficult,” he said. “Look around the league and every game is a battle. After trying to play Saturdays and Tuesdays, today is very difficult. But we did what we needed to do to win the game. We play a brutal schedule. We just got back from Boston and now we have to get ready for Sunday and Virginia Tech. We’re happy to get this win and move on.”
Ghanayem said the team knew it needed a win with three tough conference games remaining on the schedule.
“We knew that we had to come out strong,” he said. “Our game in Boston, we came out soft and they punched us. We were really harping on the first 10-15 minutes of this game. We got the job done, but we sort of relaxed after that.” “We held on, we got the win; we’ll just take the ‘W.’ We knew these guys were going to be on the road, playing an ACC school and we were here to bring the pain. We just needed to play hard and tough every second of the game.”
Sanchez said the win was necessary to build some momentum given the strength of the ACC.
“We have the toughest conference of anybody,” Sanchez said. “Whether the team we’re playing is good or bad, we’ve got to be on top of our game. We have to work on our formations. We need to get everyone involved and using the system. We’ve got an ACC match on Sunday [against Virginia Tech] and we need to go win that one.”
Last year, the Hokies clobbered the Pack 4-0 in Blacksburg, Va.
“We’re going to get our spirits up and go in against Virginia Tech and get a little revenge for last year,” Ghanayem said.