East-West soccer thoughts

SWakeSports is in the midst of its first road trip. I'm here in lovely Greensboro for the N.C. Coaches Association East-West All-Star Games. I arrived last evening for the girls' and boys' soccer games, and I'll remain through tonight for the football game.

As a quick aside, I am now officially a "blogger." Bloggers get stereotyped as the loser sitting in his underpants in his mom's basement commenting on whatever he feels like. Well, this is coming to you from the game room of my in-laws house, and I'm still wearing my pajamas. So close enough.

Thoughts on the soccer games after the jump.

Both games were rather uneventful. The West won the girls' game 1-0 and the boys' game ended a 0-0 tie.

Combined, it's the lowest scoring night in the games' 17-year history. It's a bit odd that so much defense was played, considering defense isn't really synonymous with an all-star game. But the teams did have some of the best defenders in the state, and it turns out this crop was better than the best offensive players in the state. So there you go.

Our contingent - Green Hope's Nicole Danford, Cardinal Gibbons' Lauren McAnallen, Apex's Katy Dodd and Apex's Stephanie Partenheimer - all played well, which of course is to be expected since they're All-Stars.

I thought Partenheimer was sensational. At Apex she was a stalwart in the midfield, but she played as a central defender for the East, and she didn't look at all out of place. It turns out that she wasn't because that's her position on her club team. But she didn't let anything get by her and she and Dodd, the other central defender, kept the defense tight and didn't let the West have another solid scoring chance after the West took a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute.

McAnallen nearly tied the game in the closing minutes when she blasted a shot from about 10 yards out, but it deflected off a defender before it got to the goal. It was one of the East's few scoring chances all night.

The boys' game was even more uneventful. Again our contingent - Ryan Duffy and Will Stewart, both of Apex - played well, again which is to be expected because they're All-Stars. It's difficult to explain why they earned my praise since they both played defensive roles - Duffy as a the East's defensive midfielder, Stewart as a central defender - so you'll just have to take my word for it.