Part-time work sends Greenfield past Lady Cyclones in second round
Posted on May 7, 2021
By Jimmy Lewis
jlewis@wilsontimes.com | 265-7807 | Twitter: @JimmyLewisWT
The whistle blew, and no one from the Community Christian School girls soccer team displayed a vested interest in receiving the kickoff during Thursday’s North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association second-round game on Forbes Field.
Greenfield freshman Serenity McNair decided she would take that possession option away from the Lady Cyclones. With no CCS player moving to take the pass back, McNair began her sprint towards the ball. Once she made the initial touch to intercept the pass, she did not stop her run until the ball settled into the back of the net.
“When I see a ball and I know I can get to it, and I know I have speed,” McNair said. “I just give it everything I’ve got, and I go get it.”
That sequence capped a two-goal outburst from McNair 24 seconds apart as the top-seeded Lady Knights only required one half of play to move forward to the quarterfinals with a 9-0 victory that was ended with the mercy rule after 40 minutes.
Greenfield, the champions of the 1-A/2-A Coastal Plain Independents Conference, won its third straight game to improve to 17-2 and will face Oakwood (5-5) in Saturday’s quarterfinal back at Forbes Field. CCS, unseeded and recipients of a first-round bye from the Mid-Carolina Conference, had its season ended with a 2-12 record.
The Lady Knights now sit three steps away from the eighth state championship in program history, with the last coming in 2012.
“The team did well,” Greenfield head coach Randol Mendoza said. “It was nice to have the extra practices in between the two games, but what always worries me is when you’ve had a lapse in games is sometimes nervousness, sometimes getting out of rhythm from not playing games. So I was curious as to how we were going to do because of that, but they settled in after a few minutes and got going.”
CCS, playing without sophomore Mikayla Evans, had problems staying with the Lady Knights in the event of well-conceived through balls. Two such sequences led to one-on-one situations in front of the CCS net that resulted in goals.
Greenfield led 3-0 within the first 10 minutes, with sophomore Kat Stanley getting a deflection off the keeper within the first 83 seconds. McNair had a hat trick, secured by the 14th minute after she timed her run and put away the simple finish to make it 4-0.
Eighth grader Darcy Dean made it 6-0 Greenfield with 13:44 left until halftime, first putting in a goal that the Cyclones wanted whistled down for offsides. But after an official’s conference, the tally stood. She later stuck in a pass from classmate Avery Williams to establish the six-goal cushion.
The Lady Knights took six corners, with Williams getting credit for two assists. Stanley, junior Libby Eagles, Dean and junior Juliette Suarez-Robles also added assists. CCS only had one shot on goal coming off a free kick outside of the run of play, and Greenfield sophomore goalkeeper Jeallen Holland faced rare threats.
Suarez-Robles took advantage of the space gained by a corner kick and slotted it away in the 30th minute, and with 5:15 to play before halftime, Stanley split a pair of CCS defenders and forced her way into the penalty area to get the finish for an eight-goal cushion.
The mercy rule was assured after Stanley played it through to Dean, whose shot generated a deflection. But Williams was on the scene to tap it into a wide-open net, and the match ended at halftime.
“I think the girls made a statement tonight with the scoreline and the intensity that they brought from minute one,” Mendoza said. “So we’re looking forward to Saturday.”
Posted on May 7, 2021
By Jimmy Lewis
jlewis@wilsontimes.com | 265-7807 | Twitter: @JimmyLewisWT
The whistle blew, and no one from the Community Christian School girls soccer team displayed a vested interest in receiving the kickoff during Thursday’s North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association second-round game on Forbes Field.
Greenfield freshman Serenity McNair decided she would take that possession option away from the Lady Cyclones. With no CCS player moving to take the pass back, McNair began her sprint towards the ball. Once she made the initial touch to intercept the pass, she did not stop her run until the ball settled into the back of the net.
“When I see a ball and I know I can get to it, and I know I have speed,” McNair said. “I just give it everything I’ve got, and I go get it.”
That sequence capped a two-goal outburst from McNair 24 seconds apart as the top-seeded Lady Knights only required one half of play to move forward to the quarterfinals with a 9-0 victory that was ended with the mercy rule after 40 minutes.
Greenfield, the champions of the 1-A/2-A Coastal Plain Independents Conference, won its third straight game to improve to 17-2 and will face Oakwood (5-5) in Saturday’s quarterfinal back at Forbes Field. CCS, unseeded and recipients of a first-round bye from the Mid-Carolina Conference, had its season ended with a 2-12 record.
The Lady Knights now sit three steps away from the eighth state championship in program history, with the last coming in 2012.
“The team did well,” Greenfield head coach Randol Mendoza said. “It was nice to have the extra practices in between the two games, but what always worries me is when you’ve had a lapse in games is sometimes nervousness, sometimes getting out of rhythm from not playing games. So I was curious as to how we were going to do because of that, but they settled in after a few minutes and got going.”
CCS, playing without sophomore Mikayla Evans, had problems staying with the Lady Knights in the event of well-conceived through balls. Two such sequences led to one-on-one situations in front of the CCS net that resulted in goals.
Greenfield led 3-0 within the first 10 minutes, with sophomore Kat Stanley getting a deflection off the keeper within the first 83 seconds. McNair had a hat trick, secured by the 14th minute after she timed her run and put away the simple finish to make it 4-0.
Eighth grader Darcy Dean made it 6-0 Greenfield with 13:44 left until halftime, first putting in a goal that the Cyclones wanted whistled down for offsides. But after an official’s conference, the tally stood. She later stuck in a pass from classmate Avery Williams to establish the six-goal cushion.
The Lady Knights took six corners, with Williams getting credit for two assists. Stanley, junior Libby Eagles, Dean and junior Juliette Suarez-Robles also added assists. CCS only had one shot on goal coming off a free kick outside of the run of play, and Greenfield sophomore goalkeeper Jeallen Holland faced rare threats.
Suarez-Robles took advantage of the space gained by a corner kick and slotted it away in the 30th minute, and with 5:15 to play before halftime, Stanley split a pair of CCS defenders and forced her way into the penalty area to get the finish for an eight-goal cushion.
The mercy rule was assured after Stanley played it through to Dean, whose shot generated a deflection. But Williams was on the scene to tap it into a wide-open net, and the match ended at halftime.
“I think the girls made a statement tonight with the scoreline and the intensity that they brought from minute one,” Mendoza said. “So we’re looking forward to Saturday.”
