Calvary Days boys soccer has had a dream season. The Cougars start their playoff run Saturday afternoon
Nobody had any idea what to expect from the Calvary Day’s boys soccer team when the season started in August.
Fast forward to today, and the Cougars have dreams of holding the NCISAA Class 3-A state-championship trophy.
Calvary Day (13-0) will play at home at 3:30 in the quarterfinals against unseeded Asheville School (9-5). Because the Cougars are the No. 1 overall seed, they received a double-bye.
“Absolutely not,” said Ben Kerth, the ninth-year head coach of the Cougars, about the prospect of being undefeated coming into the playoffs. “This was actually a season where we had lost six seniors, and we had lost two guys to the (NC Fusion) Academy. So we were supposed to actually be middle of the pack.”
Even though the Cougars lost a great deal of talent from last year’s team that went 14-6 overall, they still have plenty of talent. They outscored their opponents 53-16 in the regular season, and two players — senior goaltender Colby Hales and junior midfielder Josiah Winters — were named to the all-state team.
“I knew this was, probably going in, going to be a harder year to struggle,” said Hales. “But the team has done great things this year with taking everything game-by-game instead of the bigger picture, which kind of got us in trouble last year when we lost some games we should’ve won.”
Winters has 18 goals to lead the team. But he isn’t the Cougars’ only scorer. Junior Jackson Godwin has 14 goals, and freshman Echo Htoo has 11.
“I think after the first couple of games, after we got our feet wet, we knew something was special with our team,” said Winters. “We’ve really bonded.”
Calvary Day hasn’t played since a 2-0 win on Oct. 8 against Westchester Country Day of High Point. That win completed an undefeated conference-championship run, but it wasn’t known if the Cougars would be the No. 1 seed for the playoffs. Matthews Christian (16-0) was also undefeated, so Calvary Day had to wait until the pairings were released last Monday.
“I know our coach told us that we had a really good chance of being the first seed,” said junior midfielder Luke Elliott. “So I think we were all hoping that because we could get home advantage, and could possibly play the championship, if we were able to progress that far, we could play the championship at our home.”
In order for Calvary Day to have the opportunity to hoist a state-championship trophy on its home field, it must first defeat Asheville School.
If the Cougars win, they would play either No. 5 Gaston Christian (11-6) or No. 4 Coastal Christian (16-2-2) of Wilmington in Tuesday’s semifinals.
“I think it’s awesome that we get to start in the quarterfinals,” Hales said. “But the bad thing about starting in the quarterfinals is all these teams that aren’t as strong as you, it’s all good teams now.”
On Thursday, the Cougars, as a team, traveled to see Asheville School defeat High Point Christian 2-0 in the second round.
“I think they’re going to respond well,” said Kerth. “They’re so pumped and excited and want to do something big here, that even when we’re not working, we’re working; you know what I mean. That’s what’s put us above the rest. We’re not like the best team out there. We’re just the hardest working team.”
Nobody had any idea what to expect from the Calvary Day’s boys soccer team when the season started in August.
Fast forward to today, and the Cougars have dreams of holding the NCISAA Class 3-A state-championship trophy.
Calvary Day (13-0) will play at home at 3:30 in the quarterfinals against unseeded Asheville School (9-5). Because the Cougars are the No. 1 overall seed, they received a double-bye.
“Absolutely not,” said Ben Kerth, the ninth-year head coach of the Cougars, about the prospect of being undefeated coming into the playoffs. “This was actually a season where we had lost six seniors, and we had lost two guys to the (NC Fusion) Academy. So we were supposed to actually be middle of the pack.”
Even though the Cougars lost a great deal of talent from last year’s team that went 14-6 overall, they still have plenty of talent. They outscored their opponents 53-16 in the regular season, and two players — senior goaltender Colby Hales and junior midfielder Josiah Winters — were named to the all-state team.
“I knew this was, probably going in, going to be a harder year to struggle,” said Hales. “But the team has done great things this year with taking everything game-by-game instead of the bigger picture, which kind of got us in trouble last year when we lost some games we should’ve won.”
Winters has 18 goals to lead the team. But he isn’t the Cougars’ only scorer. Junior Jackson Godwin has 14 goals, and freshman Echo Htoo has 11.
“I think after the first couple of games, after we got our feet wet, we knew something was special with our team,” said Winters. “We’ve really bonded.”
Calvary Day hasn’t played since a 2-0 win on Oct. 8 against Westchester Country Day of High Point. That win completed an undefeated conference-championship run, but it wasn’t known if the Cougars would be the No. 1 seed for the playoffs. Matthews Christian (16-0) was also undefeated, so Calvary Day had to wait until the pairings were released last Monday.
“I know our coach told us that we had a really good chance of being the first seed,” said junior midfielder Luke Elliott. “So I think we were all hoping that because we could get home advantage, and could possibly play the championship, if we were able to progress that far, we could play the championship at our home.”
In order for Calvary Day to have the opportunity to hoist a state-championship trophy on its home field, it must first defeat Asheville School.
If the Cougars win, they would play either No. 5 Gaston Christian (11-6) or No. 4 Coastal Christian (16-2-2) of Wilmington in Tuesday’s semifinals.
“I think it’s awesome that we get to start in the quarterfinals,” Hales said. “But the bad thing about starting in the quarterfinals is all these teams that aren’t as strong as you, it’s all good teams now.”
On Thursday, the Cougars, as a team, traveled to see Asheville School defeat High Point Christian 2-0 in the second round.
“I think they’re going to respond well,” said Kerth. “They’re so pumped and excited and want to do something big here, that even when we’re not working, we’re working; you know what I mean. That’s what’s put us above the rest. We’re not like the best team out there. We’re just the hardest working team.”
