Ardrey Kell’s ‘menace,’ senior Kelley Tarpley, leads Knights’ soccer to playoffs
Ardrey Kell senior Kelley Tarpley wasn’t expected to be the leading lady on the Knights’ top-flight soccer team this season. But she’s adjusted to it just fine.
Tarpley had planned to team up with, and play off of, Ardrey Kell star Makayla Rodriguez this season. Rodriguez, a junior, scored 29 goals and 15 assists as a sophomore and led the Knights to a national ranking and a berth in the N.C. 4A Western Regional championship game.
But Rodriguez went down in the fourth game of the season with a knee injury, when Ardrey Kell was unbeaten, and Tarpley suddenly found herself at the top of the scouting report.
“It’s definitely been a lot harder,” Tarpley said. “But it’s just a challenge, nothing I can’t handle. But I usually get a double- or triple-team. So it does get to be a little tough sometimes.”
Tarpley has scored a team-best 15 goals to go with a team-best five assists. The Knights (16-4-3) have won four straight games and captured a sixth straight conference title.
This week, Ardrey Kell and Tarpley begin the NCHSAA 8A state playoffs as a No. 4 seed in the West.
The Knights have a bye in Monday’s first round and will play the winner of a game between No. 12 Chambers and No. 5 West Forsyth, at home, in a second-round playoff game Thursday.
Ardrey Kell will try to reach its third state championship in five years. And Knights coach Kim Montgomery thinks her team, even shorthanded, can make a run.
“We can win with this team,” she said, “because our locker room is amazing, and my seniors are amazing, but you know, it’s really hard for us. Makayla is such an amazing player and goal scorer, so we’ve had to really step up and find different ways to score. But it’s anybody’s game once you get into the playoffs, and this team is built on standards.”
It’s true. Montgomery has had to find new ways to win.
A year ago, the Knights averaged nearly four goals per game. Now it’s less than three, and Tarpley is the only Ardrey Kell player to reach double digits in scoring.
“Kelley’s been great,” said Ardrey Kell junior Mina Agajan. “She’s really fast, and I felt like we just depend on her. Everyone just seems scared of her, so she just keeps going through (opponents).”
Tarpley was on the Knights’ 2023 state championship team and her foot speed now, as then, separates her from a lot of her opponents.
“And she’s grown so much as a person and a leader and a player,” Montgomery said. “She literally plays every position on the field in practice. The other day she was trying to play goalkeeper, which is not happening. I need her on the field. She’s just a menace. The other team always has to know where she’s at, or she’s going to punish you.”
Tarpley said she’s just focused on finishing her senior season the same way she did her freshman year — with a state ring.
“I think we definitely can do it,” she said. “Things seem really good this year, so we definitely have the opportunity to go back to states.”
