Reece Woller’s penalty kick lifts South Mecklenburg to NC 4A boys’ soccer title

There were about a half-dozen reasons why South Mecklenburg’s players could have lost faith Friday night in their 4A boys’ state soccer championship match against Apex Friendship.

There were the shots that clanged off the top of the Apex Friendship goal post. And then the Sabres played a man down in the final 10 minutes of overtime after a player picked up his second yellow card.

But things finally turned the Sabres’ way in a penalty-kick shootout, when South Mecklenburg outscored Apex Friendship and won the title.

The final score was 1-1, with the Sabres winning the shootout 6-5.

“That crossbar,” South Mecklenburg coach Eric White said afterward. “We must have hit it a half-dozen times! But it was finally good to us in the end.”

White said his team deserved to play in the state championship, but the Sabres — at least on paper — looked like an unlikely candidate for a 4A title.

They had an 11-6-3 record in the regular season and finished third in the SoMeck 4A. Only once in the playoffs did they score more than two goals. They had to win all six postseason matches on the road, finishing Friday night at MacPherson Stadium in Brown Summit, near Greensboro.

A check of records indicates the Sabres might have been the lowest seed (24) ever to win a state championship.

“I knew we had a good team,” White said. “We lost a couple key players from last season, and it took a while for us to get it going. But we did.”

South Mecklenburg prefers a possession-style of soccer and likes to push the tempo. The Sabres normally don’t show a physical style.

Friday night, however, a hockey game broke out. There were numerous fouls, six yellow cards, and plenty of chippy play.

All of that culminated in the second 10-minute session of overtime when the Sabres’ Rahal Karkoubi picked up his second yellow card and was sent to the bench. South Mecklenburg then had to play a pair of five-minute sudden-death overtime periods a man short.

Yet they still pushed the attack.

“We’ve been a man down two or three times this year,” White said. “We’ve learned how to deal with that. We were going to try to win. We were throwing everything at them.”

Apex Friendship (20-6-1), playing in the state soccer championship for the first time, broke to a 1-0 lead on Patrick Dion’s goal in the sixth minute. South Mecklenburg tied it at 1-all when Patrick Dugan scored on a pass from Callen Ferguson.

In the second half, the Sabres relentlessly pressed the attack. Patrik Burling had two shots bounce off the crossbar, and his teammates had two more.

But after 80 minutes of regulation, 20 minutes of overtime, and 10 minutes of sudden-death overtime, it was still 1-1.

Each team made its first penalty kick, then missed the next two. After that, each team made four in a row. Finally, on the eighth shot, the Sabres’ Reece Woller bounced a shot off the crossbar — and into the goal. The Warriors’ Scott Wildes hit his shot over the net, and the Sabres were state champions.

South Mecklenburg also won state titles in 1971 and 2015.

Sabres’ goalkeeper Paul Northcutt made two big saves in the shootout and several key saves during regulation.

“My mind is a clean slate in the sticks (shootout),” he said. “I know the tendencies of some of the players. I know a couple of tricks, but at the end of the day, it just comes down to mindset.”

Apex Friendship coach Matt Pugliano said his team gave everything.

“The boys never quit,” he said. “I didn’t use a lot of subs, so you’ve got guys who were playing for 110 minutes, and then penalties after that. So that’s just a testament to their character and their will tonight.”

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle

Soccer Roundup: Community School of Davidson falls; Gray Stone Day wins in 1A

Community School of Davidson’s bid for a state soccer championship came up short Saturday, with the Spartans falling 5-0 to red-hot Franklin Academy in the 2A finals.

Gray Stone Day, from northern Stanly County, captured its first state championship in boys’ soccer, downing Hobbton 3-1 for the 1A crown.

And in the 3A finals, defending state champion Hickory was shut out 3-0 by First Flight.

Saturday’s three matches finished the boys’ soccer championship weekend, which began Friday night when South Mecklenburg edged Apex Friendship on penalty kicks for the 4A championship.

The finals were played at MacPherson Stadium in Browns Summit, near Greensboro.

2A finals

Community School of Davidson’s third appearance in the state finals ended the way its first two attempts did, with a disappointing setback.

Franklin Academy (20-4-3), which previously won state championships in 2015 and 2019 as a 1A school, came on strong in the playoffs. The Patriots, seeded second in the East, outscored their six postseason opponents 38-2.

Junior Logan Hawley put Franklin Academy up 1-0 with a goal in the second minute. Charles Bloom and Holt Lane added first-half goals, and Nick Fitzgerald and Chase Liner added goals in the second half.

Senior Preston Cock had a strong second half for Community School of Davidson (22-3-1), but his two shots on goal were stopped by Franklin Academy goalkeeper Noah Lanford.

Community School of Davidson also lost in the state finals in 2015 (to Franklin Academy) and 2019 – both times as a 1A school.

“I told my guys to be proud of the season,” Community School of Davidson coach Lee Ennis said. “It wasn’t our night, and Franklin was the better team tonight.”

“That’s why you work as hard as you do all season long,” Ennis added. “You try to reach this point, and you hope that it comes together on that one night – and sometimes it doesn’t, and it didn’t for us tonight.”

Fitzgerald, a senior, said he and the other 12th-graders felt extra reason to win Saturday night.

“In my freshman year, we lost in the state championship, and ever since then, I’ve wanted this so badly,” Fitzgerald said. “The whole season, we’ve been working toward this, and now we got it.”

1A finals

Gray Stone Day (21-2-2) made the most of its first appearance in the state championship.

Hobbton (24-3-1), also in the finals for the first time, actually took the early lead on a 19th-minute goal by Ever Reyes, on a header off a corner kick by Ricardo Diaz.

Gray Stone Day knotted the score late in the first half, when Desmond Bullard tallied on a blistering shot from about 15 yards out.

The match came down to a battle of Hobbton’s speed against Gray Stone Day’s size.

The Knights, from the Yadkin Valley 1A-2A Conference, made the most of their height with two second-half goals. Arkyn Pethel got the game-winner in the 51st minute, scoring on a deflected shot by Bullard.

Seven minutes later, Bullard got his second goal, on an assist by Donovan Christlieb.

“Having 11 seniors on our team, they had a bad taste in their mouths, losing in the third round last year,” Gray Stone Day coach Bradley Harrington said. “They had a taste of championship-level play as freshmen and sophomores, so they were ready to meet that level this year.”

Gray Stone Day got off to a slow start this season, with two losses and a tie in its first four matches. But the Knights went 20-0-1 the rest of the way. Their tie was against Hickory Ridge, which reached the semifinals in the 4A playoffs.

3A finals

Hickory (23-4-2), playing in the 3A championship match for the third straight year, fell to the speedy Nighthawks from the Outer Banks.

First Flight (21-0-1) scored in the 17th minute, with Cam Summerton getting the goal off a Nathan Tsonev corner kick. Seth Albright made it 2-0 just a minute before halftime, and Marvin Hernandez got First Flight’s third goal early in the second half.

Hickory beat Jacksonville for the 3A championship last year and lost to Western Alamance in the 2021 finals. The Red Tornadoes also won a 3A title in 2001 and lost in the finals in 1997 and 2010.

First Flight won a state championship in 2016 and lost in the finals in 2013, 2014 and 2017. All of those appearances were as a 2A school.

“This was such a fantastic group,” Hickory coach Brian Jillings said. “They are not only athletes on the pitch, but also off the field. They play for each other. They play hard. They are just the epitome of student-athletes and the kind of kids you want to work with.”

PHOTOS: South Meck vs Apex in 4A soccer final

This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 10:02 PM.