By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
It was a stunning conclusion to another season filled with highlights for the Western Alamance girls’ soccer team.
Dixon’s Sloane Guidry scored twice in the final 11 minutes to knock off the host Warriors 2-1 in the Class 5-A East Region final Tuesday night.
“Going into it, it was kind of a coin-flip kind of game,” Western coach Camden Brooks said.
So Western (23-1) will be unable to repeat as state champion.
“I’m really proud of the girls,” Brooks said. “There’s high expectations for them every year. Especially winning the state championship last year, everybody thinks you’re the team to do it again. So they’ve dealt with the expectations all year. They’ve played so physical and competitive. If anyone was going to beat us, it was a team like that.”
Western lost a game in regulation for the first time since Dixon tripped the Warriors in the third round of the 2023 state playoffs. The Warriors had gone 73 consecutive games without experiencing such a defeat, though a 2024 regional final that was tied through overtime was decided on a penalty-kick shootout to determine a state finalist (with Jacksonville advancing).
This was another noteworthy regional final.
“Amazing game,” Dixon coach Josh King said. “Two powerhouse teams, 80 minutes of fight.”
Western and Dixon previously met in the 2023 and 2025 state playoffs, with each team claiming 1-0 victories. Western won last year in overtime on the same field in the same round.
“Our girls remember that feeling,” King said. “We wanted what they had last year.”
After a 25-minute weather-related pregame delay, Callie Athas scored less than 4½ minutes into the game for top-seeded Western. She controlled the ball down the left side and all the way into the box before putting a shot into the net as Dixon surrendered a goal for the first time in the postseason.
Both teams had scoring chances in what included back-and-forth stretches as Western stayed unscored upon in the playoffs.
Then with about 19 minutes remaining when second-seeded Dixon made a substitution, King said he implored his team to be more aggressive on the attack.
Guidry, a freshman, broke through for Dixon when she found space on the right side for a powerful shot that found the net with 10:52 to go.
“After that first one happened, I think we were a little shellshocked,” Brooks said.
The Bulldogs weren’t done, with Hailey Smith lofting a corner kick high into a crowd in the box. Goalkeeper Camden Markey reached for the ball and was unable to control it. When the ball hit the turf, Guidry was near the goal line in front of the net to boot it in with 3:44 left.
The Warriors didn’t have an answer the rest of the way.
“We knew they were going to be the toughest team we played,” Brooks said. “They’re very, very physical and makes the game grindy and the ball is in the air a lot and that’s not how either of us want to play, but it’s just the intensity that the game brings.”
Dixon (19-3-2) will take on Hickory (22-1-1), a 4-0 victor against South Point in the West Region final, in the state championship game at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Durham County Stadium.
“We want more,” King said.
Last Thursday, Western won 4-0 against No. 12 seed Southern Nash in the fourth round, scoring two goals in each half. Athas, Kayley Lee, Emma Gryniewski, and Cana Kaffenberger had Western’s goals, and Markey made six saves. Southern Nash finished with an 18-7 record.
