CHOCOWINITY — Two well-placed strikes from junior Devin Guzman were the difference in the Southside soccer team’s 2-0 victory over Perquimans on Wednesday.

With thunder rumbling in the distance throughout the contest, a couple flashes of lightning as the halftime whistle sounded was all it took to end the game at 40 minutes.

“That’s the best Perquimans team I’ve ever seen — they handled the ball well and had some opportunities,” said head coach John Lohman. “Our defense stepped up and I think they only had one shot on goal. When you have your fullbacks pressuring one side or the other, it makes it easier for the goalie to know what the guy is going to do with the ball.”

Southside’s midfield controlled them tempo for most of the shortened contest, limiting Perquimans to two shots, only one that required a save from keeper Chris Reiner. The Seahawks finished with 13 shots — four from midfielder Jesse Lohman.

Guzman and midfielder David Romero had a couple of early opportunities on net minutes into the contest, but both shots were corralled by the Pirates’ keeper. The shots kept coming from the Seahawks’ attack and with 15 minutes remaining in the half, it was Guzman who finally got a piece of redemption. After a scuffle at the top of the box, midfielder Caleb Petty hit a square pass to Guzman, who chipped a right-footed shot that deflected off the keeper’s hand and trickled into the back of the net, putting his team up 1-0.

Two minutes later, the midfield pair hooked up again. This time, it was Petty who took a shot on goal, but the ball deflected off the left post. Guzman ran in and was able to clean up the mess, tapping an easy shot to the left of the keeper. Southside put another three shots on goal before the halftime whistle.

“We had a lot of one-touch passing in front of the goal, three possessions stand out in my mind … You can’t get much better than one-touch passing, bringing it from one side of the field to the other quickly. It was great to see and you can’t ask for much more,” Lohman said.

With the win, Southside remains undefeated at 3-0, heading into Monday’s matchup against Unity.