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WASHINGTON, N.C. – A rainy couple of days postponed Washington High School’s soccer schedule this week and forced the team to practice inside the gym this past Thursday.

The weather is the only thing to successfully stop the Pam Pack so far this season.

Washington heads into the Eastern Plains Conference season, weather permitting, with three crucial games. The Pam Pack (9-0) play at Greene Central (7-3, 2-0 EPC) on Monday, host North Pitt (10-1, 1-1) this Wednesday and go to SouthWest Edgecombe (8-1-2, 1-1) on Sept. 30. The Greene Central game was originally scheduled for Washington but was moved due to the wet conditions of the field. That comes after last Wednesday’s game with Farmville Central was … you guessed it … rained out.

“You know, I thought we could be pretty good because we had a lot of guys coming back, but I definitely thought we were going to be a stronger defensive team,” Washington soccer coach Jim Kozuch. “We lost a guy that had 35 goals for us last year and replacing that doesn’t come often.

“But, at the same time, you know these guys, they have worked hard, they’ve been playing together for quite some time and, although the numbers will show defensively we’ve been really good, offensively we’ve been pretty good as well

“So I’m happy. I think it’s a pretty well-rounded team.”

The Pam Pack have five shutouts, blanking D.H. Conley, Manteo, South Central and West Carteret twice. Washington also has three games where the defense has given up one goal and one with two goals given up. The offense has scored 27 goals in those nine games.

“I think our defense is definitely our strong suit, but our offense always finds a way to get a couple of goals back in the net and give us some cushion back there, which has helped us a lot,” said senior defender Jacob Spivey. “I honestly wasn’t expecting to be undefeated, but I think our determination and confidence really helped us.

“And, of course, having a goalie that’s never played goalie, that was kind of questionable at first, but he’s fitting real well, and he’s done a great job so far.”

That goalie is Jacob Daniels, another senior. Kozuch said he’s tried to get Daniels to play on the soccer team for a couple of seasons before he accepted the call. After a nervous first game, Daniels said he’s fit into his role of helping the defense sparkle.

“First time on, it’s definitely been different, but they all brought me on as family,” Daniels said. “Every single practice we’ve been working hard and each game we’ve played very hard.

We’ve been very disciplined too. We’ve worked as hard, probably as hard as anyone else in the conference and hopefully, we can get that number one seed (in the Class 2-A East state playoffs).”

Micah Whitley, a senior left wing, knows the offense and defense need to be at the top of their game during this tough stretch. He’s been pleased with the way things have gone and is optimistic the Pack can continue that success.

“I expected the defense,” Whitley said of how good that side of the ball could be this season. “I’ve played with them my whole life. We used to all play on the same team.

“They’ve all been good. think probably our midfield and offense need to step it up. We get a lot of shots, not a lot of goals. But our defense, I’d say it’s one of the best in the conference.”

Kozuch knows his team will be challenged and hopes they don’t lose a step in their play due to the weather.

“It’s scary. We haven’t played a game and it’ll be probably ten days, you know from our last game to playing Greene Central on Monday,” Kozuch said. “We know right now that Greene Central is gonna be our number one competition to start and then, of course, it moves right on to North Pitt, who has been fantastic this year as well.

“We’re hoping, you know, these guys they’ve thought with all this rain that they were gonna get days off. There’s no days off until we can take a deep breath and see how we fare after next week.

“Hopefully we get the results, if we somehow … we’re able to pull out both games next week you know it’ll put us in the driver’s seat.”