By David Rogers. HUDSON, N.C. — Watauga played a good, even dominating first half of soccer on Oct. 9 against South Caldwell but could not finish (read, score goals), leading to a halftime score of 0-0. The second half turned worse — until the last eight minutes.
Call it a whirlwind effort by the Pioneers. Trailing 1-0 with just over eight minutes to go, Watauga wing forward Lade Oguntoyinbo found the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1. Four minutes later, Ben Myers put the Pioneers ahead with a goal of his own. Then, perhaps just to make a point about Watauga’s dominance, Oguntoyinbo scored a final Pioneer goal with just 13 seconds left on the clock to give the visitors from Boone a 3-1, Northwestern Conference win.
Assists were credited to Jossue Alcaraz, Thomas Moss and Myers.
“We played excellent the first half except for not being able to finish six great opportunities. We felt great tied 0-0 at half but we didn’t play well in the second half at all. Then there was that last eight minutes. I am proud of how our guys fought and never quit to pull out the win despite not giving our best effort in the second half,” said Josh Honeycutt, Watauga’s head coach.
Now 4-2 and No. 3 in Northwestern Conference (6-10 overall) standings, behind undefeated Hibriten (13-2-3 overall) and 4-1-1 Alexander Central (10-3-2 overall), Watauga travels to Taylorsville on Oct. 11 to take on the Cougars with a chance to move into second place with a win. The Pioneers return home to face Hibriten on Monday, Oct. 16.
