South Point stops Lake Norman Charter, heads to 3A state championship game
It’s no surprise that Monday night’s N.C. 3A Western Regional championship girls’ soccer match was a defensive struggle.
Between them, Lake Norman Charter and South Point had allowed 31 goals in 49 games with 33 total shutouts.
But after a scoreless first half, South Point’s Mackenzie Crill scored with 22 minutes left. That was the only goal in the state semifinal at Huntersville, and was enough to send the Red Raiders to their third straight state championship game.
South Point (21-3-2) — which had lost to Lake Norman Charter in two previous regional finals — won its sixth in a row and will play either Western Alamance or Dixon in the 3A state championship game at the Matthews Sportsplex later this week. Dixon plays the eastern regional final at Western Alamance at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“This is kind of a monkey off our back,” South Point coach Rich Lewandowski said. “They beat us two years in a row in this same situation. So this was big for a lot of these girls and the alumni.”
The Knights ended a pair of South Point unbeaten seasons in 2021 and 2022 with four-goal wins — 4-0 at South Point in 2021 and 5-1 at Lake Norman Charter in 2022.
In this meeting, the Red Raiders held a 13-7 shot advantage and broke through when Crill scored off a Hannah Thortrup assist following a direct kick in the 58th minute.
“The foul happened in a good spot,” said Lewandowski, whose team improved to 21-3-2. “And Mack Crill is really good at following the shot and finishing for us. It was a perfect situation.”
South Point’s defense did the rest with Isabella Goodwin getting the goalkeeping shutout against a high-scoring Knights (20-3-2) offense that finished the season with a 149-18 goal differential.
The Red Raiders now hope to reach another goal that has provided heartbreak for the program the previous two years.
South Point has lost 4-0 to Eastern Alamance in 2023 and 3-2 on penalty kicks to Jacksonville last season after the teams went through regulation time and overtime with a scoreless tie.
Three who made a difference
Mackenzie Crill, South Point: The junior forward scored the game’s lone goal in the 58th minute.
Hannah Thovtrup, South Point: The senior defender assisted in the game’s lone goal.
Isabella Goodwin, South Point: The junior goalkeeper had seven saves in shutting out Lake Norman Charter.
Notable
▪ Even with the loss, Lake Norman Charter’s program has a remarkable 149-12-9 record during the past seven full seasons with state runner-up finishes in 2018 and 2019, state titles in 2021 and 2022, fourth-round losses in 2023 and 2024 and a Western finals loss this year.
▪ The Red Raiders’ success of recent years — which also includes eight conference titles in the past nine seasons — shows no sign of slowing down. Belmont Middle School, South Point’s primary feeder program, has won five straight county titles and a record 64 consecutive games.
They said it
“This was a big game for us. We’ve just got to get it done in the championship now.” — South Point head coach Rich Lewandowski
This story was originally published May 26, 2025 at 8:42 PM.
