By David Rogers. WEDDINGTON, N.C. — Surely, Watauga was playing Real Madrid, Liverpool, or Bayern Munich players disguised as the Weddington Warriors on Nov. 7 in Round 3 of the NCHSAA 4A Men’s Soccer State Championships. They were ball-handling magicians with world class sprinters’ speed. And oh, but they were fit.
To use Pioneer head coach Josh Honeycutt’s words after the match, Watauga ran into a buzz saw in losing the tilt, 4-1. Fitness, speed, ball-handling skill, intensity, work ethic… Weddington had it all.
“Weddington is a quality team and one of the best high school teams I have ever seen,” said Honeycutt in describing Weddington’s performance to High Country Sports. “Their No. 1 seed is clearly deserved. We may not have given them our best game, but even that may not have been enough. They are that good.”
Warrior senior midfielder Wesley Atoyebi was often seen in the attacking third for host Weddington, and provided bookends for his team’s scoring. Midway through the first half, after he and his teammates had peppered the Watauga goal with shots that were either turned away by the Pioneer backline, saved by goalkeeper Kyle Painter, or just missed outside and above the net, Atoyebi ripped a worm-burner past Painter from about 10 yards out, from in front of the left upright.
That was the only scoring in the first half, although Weddington controlled possession and squandered several opportunities, often forced into rushed shots on goal by a pesky Watauga defense.
In the 48th minute, Weddington junior forward Eli Petko punched another Warrior goal into the Watauga net. That was followed in the 63rd minute by a rocket off the foot of junior Tucker Kern to put the Warriors ahead, 3-0.
Watauga finally got on the scoreboard with just under seven minutes remaining to shrink the deficit to 3-1. Senior forward Nathan Bishop maneuvered around a Warrior defender and that brought Weddington’s goalkeeper out. In the subsequent collision of Bishop, goalkeeper and another Warrior defender, the ball popped out to the right — and right to the feet of Watauga’s Klaus Best with nothing but an open net in front of him, some 10 yards a way.
“It was just a case of being in the right place at the right time,” said Best. “I just toed it in.”
Atoyebi, the Warrior midfielder who had started Weddington’s scoring spree, sent yet another rocket zipping past beleaguered Watauga goalkeeper, junior Kyle Painter, who was credited with an astonishing 13 saves on the night and saw at least a dozen more Weddington shots on goal sail past or over the net.
“They are really good,” Honeycutt said of Weddington. “Their intensity, their work rate, their speed, their ability to move the ball quickly. They are just good and we ran into a buzz saw tonight. We may not have given them our best effort, but that at least partially was due to their intensity and skill. It is hard to come in and play the No. 1 seed and trying to find confidence. I think we came out a little scared and a little slow, which allowed them to build their confidence. We didn’t win the balls we normally do. We didn’t challenge. We didn’t do the things that we normally do.”
After looking at Watauga’s schedule and some of the film on the Pioneers in preparing for their Round 3 match, Weddington head coach Powell Williams was impressed by how well the Pioneers had competed against some stronger teams in their non-conference schedule and dominated the Northwestern Conference.
“Watauga is a smart team, a good soccer team,” said Williams after the match.”They are very balanced and clever at times. They have beaten some good teams. I told our guys that, No. 1, we had to finish. We left a lot of opportunities on the table in the first half. Watauga is the type of team that will fight back, even when they are down. You have to stay on top of teams like that. You can’t let those opportunities slip by. I reminded our team at half that this wasn’t a team that would go away in being down 1-0 or 2-0. Watauga is a team that will hang in there.”
Williams was perceptive in assessing Watauga’s preparations for facing his Weddington charges.
“I know they had a pretty rough non-conference schedule, but I don’t really think Watauga has had the opportunity to face teams with the kind of speed that we have. That was a major difference in the outcome. Our intensity probably got to them in the second half and kind of broke them down a bit,” said Williams.
Weddington now moves on to play No. 12 Myers Park in the West bracket’s semifinals. To advance, the Mustangs upset No. 4 seeded Lake Norman, 1-0.
In the bottom half of the bracket, No. 3 Northwest Guilford dominated No. 11 Cox Mill, 6-0, while No. 7 Ardrey Kell advanced past No. 2 Providence in a shootout, 3-2. Both semifinals will be played on Nov. 10.
In the East bracket, the lower half will feature lower seeded teams battling to the East semifinals, with No. 11 Laney (3-0 victors over No. 14 New Hanover) facing No. 23 Apex Friendship (3-2 winners over No. 15 Middle Creek).
Not all scores have been reported in the upper half of the East bracket, but at least one entry into the East semifinals has been confirmed: No. 1 seeded Hoggard. In the other quarterfinal match, also on Nov. 7, No. 5 Cardinal Gibbons was to play the unreported winner of the Round 2 contest between No. 13 Green Hope and No. 4 Lumberton.
