PINETOWN — The Southside-Northside rivalry was played out on the soccer field yesterday, as the Seahawks emerged victorious on the road, defeating the Panthers 7-0 to push their winning streak to seven games.

“It was just a great night overall,” Southside head coach Jay Petty said. “We played some really good soccer and really looking forward to going forward and seeing what happens in the rest of the season.”

The Seahawks (12-1, 2-0 1A Coastal Plains Conference) took some time to get into a rhythm, as they switched their formation to better suit the smaller field Northside (2-4, 1-1 1A CPC) plays on.

“They barely got the size for the field, so we had to change the formation a little bit, go back to that 4-5-1,” Petty said. “Took us about 10 minutes to get back into it. But I think once we did, we were fine. And then the boys were being unselfish and playing really good.”

Once Southside found its rhythm the goals started to flow with Luke Matthews leading the way with fours goals. The senior forward opened the scoring nine minutes in, getting onto the end of a Johnathan Hernandez throw-in and putting a low header near post past Northside goalie Jacob Satterfield. Matthews got his second goal just a minute later, when Hernandez played a ball over the top of the Panther backline that Matthews ran onto and calmly finished past an onrushing Satterfield.

Hernandez grabbed a goal for himself with eight minutes remaining in the opening half, hitting a low shot from 25 yards out. Matthews completed his hat trick in the final minute of the half, pouncing on a loose ball in the box and burying the ball in the net to give Southside a 4-0 lead heading into the break.

Southside could’ve led Northside by even more if it wasn’t for Satterfield, who was filling in at goalkeeper in the place of the injured Alexia Somers. He had a string of saves between the Seahawks’ second and third goals, including stonewalling Matthews on a breakaway and a reflex save of a Matthews shot after the Southside forward received the ball free of any defenders from a Jaime Guzman flick-on header.

Northside actually opened up the second half by controlling play a bit and keeping the ball in Southside’s end of the field. But it was the Seahawks that scored nine minutes into the second half, as Matthews bagged his fourth goal after some miscommunication between Satterfield and his defenders allowed the ball to creep into the net.

Just five minutes later Guzman provided the highlight of the game. The junior received the ball 25 yards out from goal and ripped a bending shot that found the upper 90 of the far post. Guzman then picked up an assist, laying the ball across the face of the goal for Santiago Lengyel Serralde to tap in after Guzman outraced two Panther defenders to a through ball.

Despite being outscored by three goals in the second half, Northside showed improvement and provided more of a threat to the Southside goal. Nate Myers was pushed up to forward to utilize his speed to chase down long passes. But the Seahawk defense maintained its focus and was alert to any danger, and was able to keep Myers from scoring.

Both teams are back in action today, as Southside heads to Tarboro (4-7-1, 1-1 1A CPC) and Northside makes a trip to Riverside (8-2-3, 3-0 1A CPC). Both games are scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m.