By Staff
Staff Reports
Jimmy Hardison got the Washington soccer team off to a hot start with an early goal, and the Pam Pack cruised from there, shocking Currituck 3-0 in Wednesday’s first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A state playoffs.
The Pam Pack (11-10-1), the fifth seed out of the Coastal Conference, also got goals from Bladimir Romero and Hernan Perez in the second half.
Washington goalie Steven Worsley kept the Knights (13-2-2), the Northeastern Coastal Conference champions, from scoring.
“I’m very happy with the big win,” Washington coach Jimmy Kozuch said. “It’s the first (boys) playoff victory in quite a while. It’s the first for me.
“We had a bunch of guys who played well. Jimmy had a heck of a game. He scored a big goal to get us going, then he got taken down in the box in the second half. Bladimir came in and got the penalty kick.”
Perez capped the scoring with about 10 minutes to play, sending a rocket into the back of the net from some 45 yards out.
Washington will play at 11th-ranked Rocky Mount (19-3-2) in the second round on either Friday or Saturday. The Gryphons, the No. 2 seed out of the Big East Conference, took a 2-1 win over Charles B. Aycock in the first round.
Seahawks, Panthers fall
The soccer season came to an end for the Southside Seahawks and Northside Panthers.
Both teams had earned wild-card entries into this year’s N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A state playoffs.
Dixon (16-5-1), the top-ranked team in the 1-A poll and the Coastal Plains Conference champions, picked up an 8-0 win over the Seahawks on Wednesday night. Southside finished the season with an 11-8 record.
Spring Creek (15-2-1), the second-ranked team in the 1-A poll and the Carolina Conference champions, earned a 4-0 victory over the Panthers on Wednesday night. Northside finished the year with a 12-7 mark.