East Meck soccer upsets No. 4 Myers Park

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By Corey Inscoe 
cinscoe@charlotteobserver.com

East Mecklenburg boys’ soccer coach Joel Edde played at Myers Park. He coached at Myers Park. And Tuesday night, his Eagles beat Myers Park.

East Meck (7-7, 4-5) upset the No. 4 ranked team in the 4A coaches poll and the top team in the Southwestern 4A conference 2-1 at home. It was the first time Edde, a second year coach at East Meck, had beaten his high school team.

“They’re the big dog in the conference. They’re what everyone in the conference wants to be,” Edde said. “To beat them is a dream for these boys that have been working hard. ...

“For our first huge win to be against Myers Park is obviously special.”

Neither team scored in the first half and Edde felt good about the way his team played the first 40 minutes, keeping a Mustang team that had won seven straight games scoreless.

“We finally put together 40 minutes of team ball,” Edde said. “I went to the halftime talk and all I could do was smile.”

Myers Park (10-3, 7-2) was aggressive to begin the second half and Kipp Carriker scored for the Mustangs off a free kick early in the half.

Myers Park’s 1-0 lead held through much of the half before East Meck’s Richard Ceu evened the score off a David Marvin throw in.

The Eagles took the lead with less than 10 minutes left in the game when a Marvin shot deflected into the goal.

“This is the most resilient bunch of boys I’ve ever coached,” Edde said. “We go down, it seems like, every game but they never quit and they’ll fight until that last whistle.”

Myers Park had quality scoring opportunities throughout the game but only one made it past East Meck goalkeeper Kevin Aguilera.

“They kept us out of the net,” Myers Park coach Bucky McCarley said. “We had what I believed to be really good opportunities to put that game away in the first half and then again in the second half and ... this is the classic we failed to finish.”

The East Meck players stormed the field in celebration after the win. Edde knows that the victory was big for his program, but he doesn’t want the Eagles to just be known as the team that upset Myers Park.

“Our ultimate goal is to make it to the playoffs,” Edde said. “We have eight seniors and not a single one of them has been to the playoffs so I want to make sure that we’re moving in the right direction and getting those seniors their due reward for all of their hard work.”

Inscoe: 704-358-5923; Twitter: @CoreyInscoe