Warriors nail down another conference crown with 3-1 defeat of Demons

Hunt High girls soccer players knew going into Thursday night’s home game against archrival Fike that the Warriors had clinched no worse than a share of the 3-A Quad County Conference championship.

But the Warriors didn’t want to share and they don’t have to after rallying from a 1-0 halftime deficit, courtesy of a gorgeous goal by Golden Demons senior Mallory Jenkins, to prevail 3-1 and wrap up their third Quad County title in a row. Senior Kate Conoley scored a pair of goals in the second half as Hunt secured the top seed from the QCC for the upcoming NCHSAA 3-A playoffs.

“Hunt-Fike is always going to be a tough battle,” assessed Hunt head coach Richard Frazier. who was celebrating his sixth conference title and fifth outright. “They’ve got a really, really good squad. I was very happy with our girls. Even in the first half, I thought we had run of the game. We had six or seven corners in the first half and lots of opportunities and they had a great shot. Mallory hit a screaming shot. I mean, it was nothing the keeper could do. Both keepers made a couple of outstanding saves in the first half and we talked about at halftime, just playing our game and playing soccer and keep creating and the girls came out and responded extremely well, I thought.”

Hunt, now 14-4-1 with a pair of nonconference games remaining next week, finished 13-1 in conference play and is 40-1-1 in three seasons in the Quad County. The Warriors have not lost to Fike since the 2018 season with 10 wins and a tie in the last five seasons (not counting the COVID season in 2020).

“I think we’ve started a culture in our team where it’s kind of an expectation to be at least in the top two and hopefully as these younger players come up, they’ll continue that culture,” said Hunt senior midfielder Cappa Bunn, whose goal started the Warriors’ comeback.

Fike (15-3-1, 9-3 QCC), which still has two makeup games in conference left to play, broke the ice in the 36th minute when Jenkins scorched a shot from some 25 yards on the right side to the far post that Warriors freshman goalkeeper Callie Roundtree had no chance of stopping.

Earlier in the first half, Roundtree made a spectacular one-handed save while falling to her right on a shot by Fike junior striker Karys Wheeler. Almost immediately thereafter, Fike senior goalkeeper Ainsley Cato stopped a point-blank shot by Hunt junior striker and leading scorer Mariah Polk.

Hunt, which took nine corner kicks to Fike’s two, had chances in the first half, especially with the blazing sun in the background as Conoley lined up corner kick after corner kick. But none came close to Cato in the goal.

“We just wanted to keep our composure and stay focused on what we were doing,” Conoley said. “We had a couple chances on goal and we just didn’t finish but we finally capitalized on those in the second half. We got it done and just came out with the win.”

The heat and sun were factors early though.

“The sun was beating,” said Conoley. “We’re wearing black (socks and shorts); it was hot so we just wanted to cool down, make sure we got complete passes and keep the ball to make sure we don’t have to run as much.”

The Warriors had to deal with a pair of free kicks by Fike early in the second half. Hunt got a free kick of its own about 10 minutes into the second half. Conoley lined up as though to take it but ran interference instead as Bunn blasted a shot from well outside the 18-yard-line that slipped by Cato and under the crossbar for the equalizer.

The Warriors, who had the downhill north end in the second half as usual, were just getting started.

“We always start on that side and then we do better downhill,” Bunn said.

Eighty-five game seconds after Bunn’s goal, Conoley took a pass from Sydney Graybeal and dribbled down the right side before unleashing a shot that had an incredibly tough angle to find the net and it did for a 2-1 lead.

“I think we just kind of got on a roll and we had an adrenaline rush,” Bunn said. “After I scored I think Kate turned it up finally.”

Conoley, who just signed with Meredith College on Thursday, chirped: “Finally got it to go in!”

She made it tougher on the Demons in the 50th minute when she headed in a cross from Polk for her 14th goal and a two-goal lead with still 30 minutes to play.

“We’re up the first half, end of the first time we were winning,” Jenkins said. “I don’t know, it’s always Hunt — I mean, you see their field. We’re playing on a slope and they’re used to playing on that. So when you’re used to playing on something like that, Kate Conoley’s going to knock it every time because she knows how the ball is coming. So I mean, it’s just kind of unfortunate. I mean, we played with a ton of intensity in the first half but I honestly thought that we came over into the second half and we thought they’re just gonna roll over and die and that’s just not what they’re going to do. They’re not gonna let up. We’re gonna have to fight for everything.”

It was a satisfying win for Hunt, which retrieved the Quad County championship trophy from the school’s trophy case for a fresh round of photos after the game.

“We’ve played a lot of quality opponents this year and we’ve really worked on ball possession and playing soccer the right way,” Frazier said. “And it’s good when you can get in games like this and keep possession and get everyone involved. I mean, it was a total team effort. Even the subs coming off the bench played extremely well when they were in the game. My hat’s off to our girls. Our girls came out and were ready to play tonight.”

Roundtree finished with six saves for Hunt, which took 11 shots to seven by Fike. Cato made eight stops.

The teams met a third time in the third round of the state 3-A playoffs last year and there’s a chance a third 2024 matchup in the postseason could happen. But Demons head coach Chris Mizelle warned they aren’t out of the QCC woods yet, with home games against C.B. Aycock (which handed Fike its other loss) and East Wake while the Warriors have nonconference dates with D.H. Conley and Corinth Holders.

“Well, we still have to turn around and play a really tough game on Monday,” Mizelle said. “So they’re done with conference play; we’ve got two more to go that could determine a lot. So we’re not going to look past that.”

For Hunt, which has lost in the fourth round of the state playoffs each of the last two years, the path is clear for another postseason run.

“Well, we wanted to go out with a bang for Fike and we’re gonna keep it up, keep it going through playoffs and see if we can pull out a ring,” Conoley said.

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