Eagles fall in OT in CAASC championship game

The best season in the brief history of Sallie B. Howard School varsity girls soccer ended the same way it began — with a loss.

The Eagles, in just their third varsity season, saw their dream of a Carolina Athletic Association for Schools of Choice championship dashed in a 2-1 overtime loss to Winston-Salem Christian in the CAASC final Thursday afternoon at Gillette Soccer Complex.

Top-seeded Sallie B. Howard led at halftime 1-0 on a Makayla Opie goal in the 21st minute but just couldn’t re-ignite its offense in the second half. The Lions scored the tying goal with 10 minutes to play in regulation then got the eventual game-winner with four minutes left in the second 10-minute overtime period.

“For the most part, I think we played a good hard game and it just came down to literally the last few minutes of the game and then it was boom!” said SBH head coach Rachelle Pierce. “And once that happened, you know, it’s hard to score when the defense and offense are pretty equal. It’s hard to come back and score when it’s been a tough game all game.”

Sallie B. Howard’s 11-game winning streak, which began right after a season-opening loss to NCHSAA 3-A Cedar Ridge at The Brittany XVIII in early March came to an end. The Eagles downed the Lions 3-0 in Winston-Salem back on April 2 but Sallie B. Howard players and coaches realized Thursday that Winston-Salem Christian had added some bigger players and they helped make a difference, especially with the Eagles dealing with a few players not at 100%.

“To be honest, I think it was the physicality,” Pierce said of the key factors in the game. “It was very physical. A lot of nudging, a lot of knocking us off the ball and we didn’t respond.”

The Eagles matched their season-low scoring output after scoring a season-high 12 goals in Tuesday’s semifinals win against ALA-Johnston County.

“We really weren’t passing the ball efficiently like we normally do,” Pierce said. “We had a lot of missed passes where we weren’t coming to the ball. We played hard, we just weren’t able to put any good runs together.”

Sallie B’s goal came on a good run by Yamile Aguilar, the team’s leading scorer who took at shot at the onrushing Winston-Salem Christian goalkeeper, who partially blocked it. As the ball trickled toward the open goal, Aguilar swerved around the keeper to finish the job but Opie got there first to nudge the ball over the line, Pierce said.

The 1-0 lead held for 49 game minutes until the Lions got the equalizer from “one of their tall, lanky people,” Pierce said, on a cross into the box. The shot evaded Sallie B. goalkeeper Uriyjah Chance for the tie.

The Eagles had a great look at the goal inside of three minutes when Pope took a shot off a cross from Aguilar that hit the post.

Sallie B. struggled to get a shot that good in either overtime period. Chance made two of her nine saves in the first 10-minute OT.

In the second extra session, the Lions used the same formua — a cross into the box for a quick blast that Chance had little chance to stop.

The Lions celebrated their CAASC championship a few minutes later while the Eagles settled for a third runner-up finish (boys soccer and boys track) to go with two CAASC titles in girls track and boys basketball, the latter coached by Pierce who is also the school’s athletic director.

Pierce wasn’t planning on coaching girls soccer this spring but had to step in when the Eagles lost their coach from last year due to unforeseen circumstances. Pierce, a former college basketball player with a broad athletic background but not much in soccer, got help from parent Kayon Opie as an assistant coach. Opie was a big help on the occasions that Pierce needed to be at home tending to family members with medical needs.

Pierce said she didn’t know if she would come back next season, although the team has just one senior in Cindy Aguilar. But along with Opie, Chance, Yamile Aguilar, the Eagles should return Jimena Alvarez, Esmerelda Villanueva, Arleny Figueroa, Valeria Mariano, Mina Reyes and Dianna Benitez, among others. Pierce said the players all asked her after the match if she would be their coach again next spring.

“You know, I really had no intention of doing it and I’m not like the best soccer coach, I wouldn’t say,” Pierce said. “I think maybe if it’s somebody that has a little bit more knowledge and a little bit more understanding of the game, they probably could take it from me, but I’m not gonna give it up to anybody.”

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