Mountain Island Charter routs Wake Prep, wins first NCHSAA girls’ soccer title

Mountain Island Charter, finally, is a state champion.

The Raptors beat Wake Prep 5-0 in Saturday’s NCHSAA 1A girls’ soccer state championship game at the Matthews Sportsplex.

Mountain Island Charter (20-5) won its 11th straight game since suffering a two-game losing streak, when it fell 3-1 to Lincoln Charter and 5-0 to Pine Lake Prep in early April. Pine Lake Prep reached the 2A state championship this season.

“Right now,” Raptors coach Darren Johnson said, “it’s kind of surreal. It’s been a long time. I’ve been coaching for 25 years. I love these girls. It’s been a six-month journey, starting in November. We had a lot of players who were right there from the start, in the cold and stuff, and they put it all together.”

Johnson said his team has lost to the eventual 1A state champion in the playoffs for each of the past three seasons. But he felt, all along, that this team was special.

“This year, it came together,” Johnson said. “I’m so proud.”

Mountain Island Charter had outscored teams 73-3 on its long win streak heading into the finals, but at halftime, the Raptors found themselves in a tight game with Wake Prep (15-8-1), which had never been to the playoffs before.

Mountain Island Charter led 1-0 at the break, thanks to a score from Mia Lor off an assist from Tiniyah Carter. But the Raptors had several more good chances, some of which were turned away from Wake Prep goalie Fiona James.

“I think we realized how much we wanted this,” said championship MVP Harmoni Carter. “And how much we wanted this opportunity. We came together in the locker room (at halftime) and discussed what we did wrong and discussed what we needed to do to fix it, and we came together.”

In the second half, Carter got another assist to Carter, who would score two goals in the second half. Teammates Cheyenne Parker and Eden Lewis added two more.

And the Raptors’ defense simply shut down a Wake Prep team that had a six-game win streak ended. In that win streak, the Guardians had shut out five teams in that run.

Saturday, though, Wake Prep couldn’t stop a determined Mountain Island Charter team after halftime.

“It’s one of those things that you get so close to (winning a state championship) and you can almost taste it,” Raptors’ coach Johnson said. “To now get over that hump and get here, it’s just amazing.”

This story was originally published May 31, 2025 at 12:46 PM.