By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
As drenched members of the Western Alamance girls’ soccer team were recovering following Tuesday night’s game in the Class 3-A East Region final, coach Camden Brooks wanted the Warriors to understand the magnitude of the accomplishment.
They’re going to the state championship.
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“So this is big-time,” Brooks said. “And we’re so young. We’re not this incredible team. We have to compete and grind.”
Western did just that until they forced a mistake from visiting Dixon and took advantage in the first of the two overtime sessions. Callie Athas converted on a penalty kick for what became a 1-0 victory on a rainy night.
Western (23-0-1) will be in the title game for girls’ soccer for the first time in school history, facing West Region champion South Point (21-3-2) at 7:00 p.m. Friday at the Mecklenburg County Sportsplex in Matthews. South Point was a 1-0 winner against Lake Norman Charter on Monday in its regional final.
“We’re kind of building off (each round),” Western forward Kayley Lee said. “We all want it real bad. We’re wanting to go all the way.”
For the past two games, all of Western’s scoring came on penalty kicks.
“When you go farther, they’re harder to get,” Athas said of the scoring and the victories.
In the regional final, top-seeded Western controlled large portions of the first half, though the second-seeded Bulldogs (19-3-1) made a few threats on counter attacks.
In the second half, Western goalkeeper Camden Markey was under more pressure, particularly in the final 10 minutes.
“We tried to tweak some stuff,” Brooks said.
Then there was a huge sequence in overtime as the ball rattled around in the box, with Markey making a save on a point-blank shot off a rebound and then pouncing on the deflected ball before an unmarked Dixon player could get a foot on it.
Soon, the ball was at the other end of the field. While in possession in the box, Athas drew a foul and the subsequent penalty kick with 2:52 left in the first of 10-minute overtime periods.
Athas said she followed her routine on penalty kicks.
“I try to stay calm about them,” she said. “We practice them a lot.”
The Warriors withstood Dixon the rest of the way.
Brooks said he reminded his team that “you’ve done something that has never happened.”
Now for Western, it’s a chance to complete a soccer sweep of state titles for this school year. The boys’ team captured the 2024 championship in November.
“The boys have already won one,” Lee said. “We want to, too.”
South Point will be in its third consecutive state final, falling to Jacksonville in a penalty-kick shootout last year after dropping the 2023 title game by 4-0 to Eastern Alamance.
Dixon was denied its second appearance in a title game. It won the 2008 championship in Class 1-A.
Tuesday’s outcome marked the second game in a row that Western conquered a team that had ended one of its recent seasons. Dixon ousted the Warriors in 2023.
Along the way …
In last Thursday night’s regional semifinal, the Warriors survived via a 3-2 tally in a penalty-kick shootout to edge fifth-seeded Jacksonville after the teams played to a 1-1 draw through regulation and 30 minutes of extra time (overtime and a pair of five-minute sudden victory periods).
Western went up 1-0 on Athas’ first-half penalty kick. Jacksonville (17-5-2) scored to pull even in the second half. Markey was credited with 10 saves.
In the shootout, Athas, Lee, and Markey converted for the Warriors.
Last year, Jacksonville topped Western in a penalty-kick shootout in the regional final.
Dixon reached the regional final for the first time since 2017 by topping third-seeded Union Pines 2-1, using a pair of second-half goals.
