First game triumph
The Leesville Pride womens soccer team won their first round game of the NCHSAA playoffs.
The game was played between the 27-seed Athens Drive, a fellow Wake County school, and the 6 seeded Leesville Pride. It was played on Tuesday night on what was a beautiful night for playoff soccer.
The result was a 3-0 victory for Leesville, consisting of goals from Mary Kate Bowers, Madison Hoffman, and Bayley Rigsbee. Bowers sparked the fire early with her goal in the first five minutes of the game and Hoffman added on a penalty kick goal shortly after.
While Athens had their moments, the Pride defense held strong and completed the shutout, something the squad has been used to doing to opponents this season.
However, according to Bowers, the squad has some things to work on.
“In the second half you could tell we were a young team because we couldn’t keep up mentally with them. Looking forward to this game, I’m hoping we can at least stay mentally in check for a full 80 minutes because its very important to our success.”
Now that the Pride have already advanced farther than last year, Bowers reminisced over last seasons heartbreaking playoff loss and wants to ensure it doesn’t happen again this year.
“I remember the last game from my junior year like yesterday. I remember them scoring on us in the last five minutes to go up 3-2 and win the game. I dont know what it is this year but we have a spark that we didn’t have last year and we have to take advantage of that to keep winning.”
What Happened Since
The Lady Pride faced the 11th-seeded New Bern Bears in the second round of playoffs last Friday. The Bears finished first in their conference just like the Pride did this season.
However, the Pride emerged victorious with a convincing 4-0 win with goals by Mary Kate Bowers & Co.
The third round game was held in Wilmington on Tuesday, May 20 at Hoggards’ home stadium. Leesville Road lost by a score of 2-1.
The Pride went up 1-0 but gave up a goal with 1:19 remaining in the match. The game went into overtime and Hoggard scored to go up 2-1. The final score was 2-1 and the Pride were eliminated, wrapping up a strong 2014 season.
For any additional information on the state playoffs, you can go to the NCHSAA website for updated brackets and articles.
