Rocky Mount High sluggish, sloppy in loss to Greenville Conley

Rocky Mount High’s Barkley Browder, right, moves the ball past Conley defenders Tuesday at Rocky Mount High School.

When the clock struck zero Tuesday afternoon, Rocky Mount High saw a familiar scoreline plastered on the scoreboard.

The Gryphons opened the season at Greenville Conley and lost, 4-1. The Vikings made the return tripTuesday and once again walked away 4-1 victors.

Yet Jordan Musselwhite felt a lot differently about Tuesday’s result afterward than he did last week’s.

“It was the same scoreline as last time, but I’m not feeling as pleased as I was after last week’s 4-1 scoreline,” Musselwhite said. ”They definitely played a lot better than we did. They were a lot more crisp in the middle. … We didn’t play very well.”

Rocky Mount High expected to be the fresher team after Conley played Monday night in Wilson, but was sluggish all around the field from the start. After a fairly even first 10 minutes, the Vikings seized control of the game and the ball and imposed their will on the Gryphons.

One of the few things that kept Rocky Mount High close for most of the day was Conley’s struggles to really test Ty Arrington in goal. The Vikings sent six shots either wide or high from close range and had three others easily within reach of Arrington’s grasp in the first half alone.

The Gryphons’ sophomore goalie made a good save in the 22nd minute, sprawling to her left to punch out a shot, but she could not corral the rebound and Sam McLaughlin was in position to fire home Conley’s first goal. The Vikings doubled their lead minutes later when Analee Reed sent a screamer into the upper corner of the goal, well out of Arrington’s reach.

“With the amount of possession they had in that game, if I were them, I wouldn’t be happy with just four,” Musselwhite said. ”We got lucky in that aspect.”

Arrington was one of the only bright spots for the Gryphons, making 11 saves in Tuesday’s defeat including a diving stop in the closing moments of the game. It was a performance that helped give her a leg up in the competition to be Rocky Mount High’s starting goalie for the rest of the season.

The few times the Gryphons did secure possession, their passes were sent to places where nobody was and the process of chasing the Vikings restarted anew. Musselwhite said the poor passing was a combination of lacking poise in possession and the team not moving to the correct positions on the field.

“We had to be more calm on the ball,” Musselwhite said. ”It helps a lot when there’s somewhere to go with the ball, and a lot of times there wasn’t anywhere to go with the ball because we weren’t making the right runs. We need to be smarter in the middle, more calm on the ball in the middle, but their teammates need to help them out a little bit to give us a good place to go with the ball.”

Conley put the finishing touches on the game with a penalty kick 12 minutes into the second half and then extended the lead again when a cross eluded everyone around the goal and found its way into the side netting.

The Gryphons did get one back when Erin Cooke executed a beautiful free kick play that left Schuyler Moss open near the goal for an easy header, providing consolation for a team looking to build confidence and prepare for a battle in the Big East.

“I hope they learn that although we lost these games, we can play with the 4-A schools and the girls that like to possess the ball,” Musselwhite said. ”We can learn how to defend like this better and have some confidence in our own playing abilities.”

GREENVILLE CONLEY 4

ROCKY MOUNT HIGH 1

Goals: GC – Sam McLaughlin (22’), Analee Reed (26’), Sam McLaughlin (52’ PK), Conley Player (59’); RMH – Schuyler Moss (75’)

Shots: GC – 26 (16 on goal); RMH – 3 (2 on goal)

Saves: RMH – Ty Arrington, 11;

by Josh Walfish

Sports Writer for Rocky Mount Telegram

Tuesday, March 8, 2016