Pioneers upend Huskies, 8-0

By David Rogers. WEST JEFFERSON, N.C. — Four goals by Watauga center forward Katie Durham and three more by attacking senior Maya Nelson — and with Morgan Flynt scoring the first goal — sealed the deal for the Pioneers on April 4, in an 8-0 rout of the Ashe County Huskies.

It was a Northwestern Conference season opener for both teams and, from the get-go, it was going to be an interesting lesson about the importance — or non-importance — of early season, non-conference play.

The resurgent Huskies were arguably one of the stronger programs at the NCHSAA’s 2A level through the 2020-2021 season. In the 1A/2A Mountain Valley Conference, the Huskies’ conference records were typically 11-3 and 10-4, even going 14-0 in the 2014-15 season. They lost to Franklin in the second round of the state playoffs that year.

Designated a 3A school with conference realignment because of Ashe County’s enrollment growth, the Huskies were reassigned to the 3A/4A Northwestern Conference in 2021-2022. On the surface, the program seemed to stumble in posting a 5-13-4 overall record in its first year under head coach Wayne Cable. In NWC league play a year ago, Ashe County was 0-10.

But looks can be deceiving. In 2022-23 non-conference play, the Huskies came into their April 4 encounter with the Pioneers sporting an undefeated, 8-0 record. At any level, that is impressive and reflects the team’s marked improvement in Cable’s second year at the helm.

Watauga, on the other hand, arrived in West Jefferson on April 4 with, on the surface, a run-of-the-mill 4-2 record. Respectable, but not 8-0.

Looking at who the opposing teams were for both sides in non-conference action is where this becomes interesting.

Ashe County dominated its slate of eight non-conference opponents, all 1A and 2A schools. Representative of the scores: 8-0 and 9-0. The closest contest was a 3-0 defeat of Surry Central on March 29. If nothing else, they were great confidence builders and opportunities to test key game strategies.

Who were Watauga’s non-conference opponents? To start, they split a pair of matches with emerging 3A power, St. Stephens (Hickory), beating the Indians in the first game and losng later in the schedule. Watauga edged a strong 4A program in East Forsyth (Kernersville) and soundly defeated a respected 3A level team in Ledford (Thomasville). Their other loss was to perennial state playoffs entry, Weddington, another 4A powerhouse program.

“Even in losing to those strong teams like St. Stephens and Weddington,” said Watauga head coach Chris Tarnowski before the Ashe County game, “we learned a lot about ourselves and what it is going to take to do well when we enter conference play. We intentionally wanted a tougher non-conference schedule, taking a lesson from Josh Honeycutt’s men’s team last season.”

Most of the men’s non-conference schedule was against strong programs. They went 2-7-1 in non-conference, but it better prepared them for the NWC schedule and they went 9-1 the rest of the way, going undefeated in conference and losing in the third round of the state tournament.

The April 4 showdown between Watauga and Ashe County was a lesson in possession and exploiting opportunities. Most of both halves were played in the Ashe County half of the field and the Pioneers used speed and ball-handling skill to exploit opportunities in space. Not to take anything away from the athletes who punched the ball into the back of the net for the eight goals, but only one of them was unassisted. Often it was the assist that created the opportunity.

The Watauga tally:

Next up for Watauga (5-2 overall, 1-0 in NWC) is an April 5 date vs. South Caldwell (5-5, 0-1). The Spartans lost to Hibriten, 7-0, in their league opener on April 4.

Ashe County (8-1, 0-1) has a home conference game against Alexander Central (9-1-1, 0-0-1). On April 4, the Cougars tied Freedom, 1-1.