Around Iredell Sports

2008 May-05

GIRLS SOCCER

Growing pains pay off for North soccer

By Brad Norman

Members of North Iredell’s girls soccer team know the Raiders will be the underdog in Wednesday’s 3A playoff opener against Jamestown Ragsdale.

It’s a role they became quite accustomed to this year.

And after a season filled with injuries and tough conference matches, the young Raiders’ playoff contest against the Mid-Piedmont Conference’s top seed doesn’t seem quite as daunting.

“We’re not going to look at (Rags-dale) as ‘these girls are going to kick our tails,’ ” senior midfielder Sarah Cass said. “We don’t look at it as a team being seeded higher than we are. We just have to get out there and do what we have to do and play like we can.”

This is the fourth consecutive year the Raiders (9-10) have advanced to the playoffs, and it may have been the most trying season during that stretch.

The Raiders trailed East Rowan for the North Piedmont 3A’s final playoff berth for most of the season before stringing together a four-game winning streak in the final weeks to vault over the Mustangs.

“I’m pleasantly surprised to make the playoffs,” Raiders coach Tim Watson said.

North was thin in the back after graduating most of its defenders from the previous year. The team also suffered a handful of injures, the most severe being a season-ending knee injury to senior and UNC-Asheville signee Jana Bell.

“On a tactical level, with the injury of Jana, you lose a main cog,” Watson said. “You pull a main cog out of a watch, and it just stops working. With this group, they decided they would fill in where it was needed and they would actually step up and do the extra work.”

Bell’s absence in the midfield has put even more of a scoring burden on junior Lauren Carter.

Carter is the team’s leader in goals despite facing constant double and triple teams.

“Sometimes it seems like every time I try to dribble the ball, there are three people there,” Carter said. “It’s been rough, but our seniors this year have really stepped up leadership wise, and a couple of younger players have come in and played well for us.”

The Raiders have gone on the road for four playoff games in the previous three years, winning one and playing well in most.

North tested Southwest Guilford before losing 3-2 last year and had Parkland, which eventually advanced to the regional semifinals, on the ropes before losing 2-1 in 2005.

“I think just staying focused and being confident in ourselves has been important,” Carter said of the team’s recent playoff performances. “You have expectations for yourself, and you know it’s a higher playing level, so you step your own game up.”

The Tigers (12-4-3) have a rich history in girls soccer. Ragsdale has won four state championships since 1994, the most recent coming in 2005, but has been bounced out of the playoffs in the second round the past two seasons.

“I’ve known about them throughout the years,” Watson said. “To me, it’s not so important to know the team as it is to know the coach. If you know the coach’s style and habits of play, he’s going to be instructing his team to do the same thing.

“Then you just deal with the problems on the field. It’s all about matchups after that.”

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