CHOCOWINITY — The Southside soccer team hadn’t played a game in two weeks due to Hurricane Florence, but the Seahawks looked like the break didn’t affect them at all when they returned to action yesterday, as they scored three goals in the first five minutes on the way to a 9-0 home victory over KIPP Pride.

The 14-day layoff between games had Southside (9-1, 1-0 1A Coastal Plains Conference) head coach Jay Petty feeling uneasy heading into the game, but what Petty had his team focus on in practice showed through yesterday.

“I was a little nervous going into it, but right off the bat I saw Luke (Matthews) and Jairo (Juarez) working together really well up front. They put away three goals in about the first five minutes. And I knew we were ok at that point,” Petty said.

“I’ve been working on some combination play with Luke and Jairo up top, making a few adjustments in the field just to see what it felt like. And I think it was a good combination setup up there tonight.”

The first three goals all came from combination play between Juarez and Matthews, with Juarez setting up Matthews to score the opening two goals. Matthews then returned the favor, assisting on a Juarez goal. Johnathan Hernandez added a goal of his own to give the Seahawks a four-goal lead over KIPP Pride (0-1, 0-1 1A Coastal Plains Conference) before the game was 10 minutes old.

There was a period without scoring after the initial flurry of goals, but Southside maintained the pressure on KIPP Pride. Then with 21 minutes remaining in the half the Seahawks added to their lead when Kevin Prado knocked the ball in the net off of a corner kick. Just a minute later Southside had a six-goal lead, thanks to Jaime Guzman. The junior received the ball at the edge of the box, cut back onto his right foot and curled a low shot that found the bottom right corner of the net.

Jared Carver, Brayden Woolard and Johan Prado added goals in the first half, giving Southside a 9-0 lead. The final goal proved important, as the Seahawks went into halftime with a nine-goal lead, ending the game due to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Nine-Goal Rule. It states that if a goal differential of nine is reached by halftime or at any time in the second half, the game will come to an end.

Even with the uneven score line, Petty was complimentary of KIPP Pride after the game, which was the first of the season for the charter school from Gaston.

“I give it to KIPP Pride, they didn’t quit. They battled the entire night and their kids were going at it as hard as they could,” Petty said. “These guys haven’t played a game yet. They were a little slow, a little sluggish; they hadn’t gotten their legs under them yet.”

The Seahawks will go for their 10th win of the season today when they head to Bear Grass Charter (3-6). Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.