By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
The Western Alamance boys’ soccer team will have a chance to repeat as state champion.
The Warriors play in the Class 5-A championship game at 11:00 a.m. Saturday against East Lincoln at Guilford College’s Appenzeller Field in Greensboro.
“That has been the goal all season,” forward Grant Bacchus said of securing back-to-back state titles. “Anything short of that would be a disappointment.”
Second-seeded Western (28-0) advanced to the title game by defeating host and top seed Pikeville Aycock 2-1 in Tuesday night’s East Region final. That clash involved the only two unbeaten teams in the state.
Bacchus had a goal and an assist and Franky Maya scored on a penalty kick as Western led 2-0 at halftime. Gabe Payne scored with 11:06 remaining for Pikeville Aycock (23-1) and the Warriors held on, in part because of the efforts of goalkeeper Eamon Hipps.
Western has a 52-game winning streak and will play on the final day of the season.
“That’s all we want,” defender Camden Oliveira said. “That’s all we put our eyes on and we’ve been expecting this from the start, so we’ve been prepared all year for it.”
The Warriors have been trending toward this throughout the season.
“We just got better with time,” Bacchus said. “We learned to play with each other better. Our connections have grown. We’ve learned to play off of each other better. I think we’ve really hit our stride during the season.”
In the West Region final, second-seeded East Lincoln (21-4-1) defeated fourth-seeded Enka 2-0 for the right to face Western on Saturday.
The Warriors played their final home game of the season last Thursday night, dispatching Wilson Fike 6-1 in the East Region’s fourth round. Meanwhile, Pikeville Aycock overcame a two-goal deficit and outlasted fourth-seeded Montgomery Central 4-3 by winning in the sudden-victory portion of overtime in the fourth round.
[Story continues below photos from Tuesday night semi-final win over Pikeville Aycock.]
Photos from Western v. Pikeville Aycock semi-final playoff game, photos courtesy of Patrick Abbott.
Bacchus, Maya, Brian Villanueva Herrera, Elio Anguiano, Abraham Cano, and Edwin Anguiano scored Western goals vs. Wilson Fike, while Elio Anguiano provided three assists.
“I think we’re in our prime form right now,” Oliveira said after that game. “We’re in the fourth round of the playoffs and winning by five goals, so we’re doing something right. I think this is the most locked in we have been all season.”
After the Warriors couldn’t convert at the Wilson Fike end numerous times in the first half, they struck first on Bacchus’ header off Elio Anguiano’s delivery with 6:11 to play before halftime.
Wilson Fike (13-8-3) pulled even off a direct kick 2:18 into the second half.
“We flipped the switch after that,” Bacchus said. “We picked our heads up and kind of told ourselves ‘We got to go. This is serious now.’ ”
The response from Western was immediate. Maya’s header two minutes later made it 2-1. Villanueva Herrera and Elio Anguiano scored seven minutes apart as the advantage stretched to 4-1.
“The guys are confident,” coach Camden Brooks said. “They step up and play in big games.”
Many of the Western players have been to this stage of the season previously.
Brooks has preached that it’s a process for the Warriors, who’ve checked off several boxes.
“Getting to this point is awesome and they’ve done so much throughout the season, but (winning it all) is the goal,” Brooks said.
Class 1-A
Clover Garden lost 3-2 to visiting North Carolina School of Science and Math-Morganton in last Thursday’s West Region semifinal.
The second-seed Grizzlies (19-4) lost to a team from outside of Alamance County for the only time this season. Brady Whitt scored both goals for Clover Garden.
Bertan Karamavruc scored all three goals for sixth-seeded NCSSM-Morganton.
