BY STEVE HANF
SALISBURY POST

After running away with a 5-0 win in the opening game of the Rowan County Soccer Tournament, North Rowan’s players celebrated for about a minute.

Sixty seconds later, the Cavaliers’ thoughts already had turned to tonight’s battle against heated rival Salisbury.

“We’re going to give Salisbury a challenge like we’ve never given them before,”said junior Jordan Littleton, whose hat trick in the first half knocked East Rowan out of the event. “Last year it was 8-0. It’s not going to be like that this year. This game is going to be closer than it’s ever been.”

North head coach Vince Connolly, whose team will play the Hornets two more times during the 2ACentral Carolina Conference season, proved a touch more cautious.

“They’re an excitable group,”he said. “Hopefully we’re ready for Salisbury. That’s what we’ve trained for, the Salisburys of the world.”

The Cavs looked like world-beaters against East, which entered the tournament with plenty of young players and low expectations. And while Jon Heidrick’s Mustangs looked ragged at times, his team might have made its biggest mistake last year — beating North twice, including the tourney opener.

“It’s the first game of the season and you always like to make a good impression,” Littleton said. “Last year East beat us twice. We didn’t want to let that happen again.”

The East defense had trouble marking Cavalier attackers Antonio “Chico” Sanchez and Littleton. Sanchez, a senior, gave North a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute when Mustang keeper Bobby Parnell couldn’t get his hands on a high corner kick. The ball bounced around in the goal box before Sanchez settled it and shot it through a crowd.

Parnell robbed Sanchez of his second goal a minute later, but Sanchez and Littleton made it 2-0 at the 18-minute mark. Sanchez tried to force a ball in against a double team and his shot caromed off a Mustang and went right to Littleton, who had a wide-open shot.

Sanchez outran the defense in the 27th minute and sent a cross into the box that Parnell deflected and Littleton returned with a header. A minute later, it was 4-0 when Littleton took a long, high throw-in, stopped the ball on a dime with a defender on him and connected from the middle of the penalty area.

“We read each other’s minds, it seems like,”Littleton said of playing with Sanchez. “We feed each other and find each other right where we’re supposed to be. It just works out.”

Sanchez tallied the fifth goal a minute before halftime off another deflection in the box. East played a scoreless second half, but that was little consolation to the Mustang coach.

“Lack of marking, a few rookie mistakes here and there, Bobby has to hold onto the ball better,”said Heidrick, running down a list of defensive rough spots. “They’re not acting like a unit, they’re acting like a bunch of guys who hustle after the ball but then don’t talk.”

A pair of freshmen paced the Mustang attack in the second half and came up with several near-misses against keepers Michael Hill and ChrisCooper. Sam Ketner and Nick Kalogeromitros weren’t the biggest players on the field by any means, but each made some nice, long runs that ended in good scoring chances.

“Sam was hustling all over the place. He was running at 110 percent all over the field,”Heidrick said. “He might’ve been getting a little tired toward the end, but there wasn’t any reason to take him out.”

Connolly also got to play a lot of his younger Cavs, a big bonus with Salisbury looming tonight at 7. He just hopes Littleton and Sanchez saved a few goals for the rest of the tournament.

“We were looking for scoring coming in,”Connolly said. “If they keep scoring five goals a game, I guess we’ll be OK. But it’ll be tougher tomorrow.”

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NOTES: South and West Rowan open today’s play at 5 p.m. in Salisbury’s Ludwig Stadium. West lost in last year’s title game to the Hornets after winning the tourney the previous two years. … Mustang Matt Shelton got tangled up in the air with a North player and landed hard, straight on his back. He hopped up right away but then left the field a bit shakily, but appeared to be OK.