Season ends for Pack after third soccer loss to Rams

Published 4:55 am Friday, November 15, 2024

By Jason O. Boyd

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SNOW HILL, N.C. — There’s a reason Greene Central is the Eastern Plains Conference champs … and a thorn in the side of the Washington Pam Pack soccer team all season.

Greene Central advanced to the Class 2-A East Regional semifinals with a 2-0 victory Thursday over Washington. The Rams (20-5) got two second-half goals in a driving rainstorm that lasted the entire contest and played solid defense to deny the Pack each time.

Greene Central hosts Southern Alamance on Saturday. Washington, the EPC runner-up, ended its season 20-3-1. All three of their losses came to Greene Central, a 3-2 heartbreaking double-overtime loss on Oct. 10 and a 4-0 loss five days later at Greene Central.

“We had a fantastic season this year,” Washington soccer coach Jim Kozuch said. “We were talking about it a minute ago with some of the seniors. I want to say I’ve almost been here for 20 years, and we’ve had four 20-win season. So this is one of our this is one of our top five seasons that I can think of.

“Our guys, they played awesome this year. We had highs and lows, but our lows really weren’t too bad. Our lows were losses to Greene Central, all of them, and Greene Central is a fantastic team.

“Sometimes when you lose a game, it’s heartbreaking. But our guys, we knew we were coming in, it was gonna be an uphill battle. And I think we really played hard tonight, and the conditions were terrible, but we didn’t let that slow us down. And, you know, I couldn’t be prouder of the boys.”

Washington played toe to toe with the Rams in the soggy first half and appeared to have the momentum heading into the locker room. But as the rains continued to fall, the Rams continued to hang with the Pam Pack and eventually broke through on offense.

In the 50th minute, Greene Central’s Josh Osorio broke free down the field and passed to Denilson Lopez, who punched a shot into the right side of the net past Washington keeper Jacob Daniels. The goal came after Daniels made a nice save on a corner kick a minute earlier and was one of several others he made as the Rams continued to pepper the Pack defense for shots.

Washington had some chances after that but couldn’t get the ball in position to convert a good shot. Another goal four minutes later, this time by Miguel Zavala off a pass from Lopez, made it 2-0.

With the rain continuing to fall and field conditions worsening, it was enough to keep the Pam Pack at bay and prevent a comeback.

“Their strikers up top, I think they’ve got 35 goals and 25 goals,” Kozuch said. “I mean, they’ve got that. They’re extremely talented. And, yeah, you know, after they scored one, you know, we were deflated a little bit, and we still have to try to find a way. I think I made a couple moves at the end that put a little pressure on them, but just a little, too little too late.”

The future looks bright for a Washington team with seven seniors and a ton of junior talent. So it’s very likely a similar scenario could develop between the two rivals next season … but maybe with a different outcome.

“We got a lot of great talent coming back,” Kozuch said. “And, you know, that’s that. We have a tradition of excellence, and we want to keep it, and I think our younger guys know that, and our younger guys put in a lot of time, and they got a lot better this year, so hopefully they can fill in.

“We’ve got some big shoes for them to fill, but I think they’ll be all right.”

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