PITTSBORO — In the second boys’ soccer edition of the Battle of Pittsboro this season, there was a winner.
Following a 1-1 double overtime draw on Oct. 16, Logan Sparrow’s goal and two assists spearheaded Seaforth’s 3-1 victory over Northwood on Oct. 21.
“We just adjusted the game enough to make it physical,” Seaforth coach Giovanni Viana said. “Northwood has big athletic players, and we’re not a big team, so we just tried to keep the ball moving, switching the point of attack as much as possible.”
Three different Hawks scored, but Sparrow had something to do with each of the goals.
After Northwood struck first with a goal from junior Kevin Fortin nine minutes into the game, Sparrow delivered a cross from the right side of the goal to sophomore Caleb Serrano who evened the score.
“Logan was taking it down the side, and I was in the right spot,” Serrano said. “He found the cross right to me.”
Said Sparrow, “It’s something coach always tells us to do. Cutback cross.”
Sparrow perfectly executed the “cutback cross” again minutes later, providing junior Zane Mcmahon an open look to give Seaforth a 2-1 lead with just under 16 minutes left in the first half.
“Coach always tells me, the left backs and right backs to follow through the weak side, and I just saw the opportunity to tap one in,” Mcmahon said.
Less than a minute later, Sparrow finally earned his own score after he gathered a lead pass from sophomore Andreas Trinado and slid the ball right past the charging goalkeeper for the final goal of the night. Sparrow leads the Hawks this season with eight goals.
“I’m really proud of Logan because he did all the things we talked about and we asked him to do,” Viana said. “When a player does what the coach asks, and it works, everyone feeds off of that, and it just gets the team going.”
Thanks to an overall solid team effort on defense and multiple key saves from senior goalkeeper Jack Haste, the Hawks shut Northwood out in the second half.
Haste, who Viana called “Spiderman” after the game, said “staying calm” in the goal was the key to allowing just one goal all night, and he also said solid communication from defenders in the field helped the defense do its job.
“They were mature, they were composed, and they knew we didn’t need anymore goals,” Viana said. “We just needed to not make mistakes and just not chase anymore goals. They sat back, absorbed pressure and countered what we needed to. It was a very mature performance in the second half.”
Looking at Seaforth’s game results from September to now, the Hawks seem to be maturing beyond what it showed against Northwood.
From Sept. 11 to Oct. 3, Seaforth lost four out of the five games in that stretch with the other result being a tie. The Hawks ended the slide with a huge 2-1 win over Graham on Oct. 7, kicking off the current stretch in which they’ve won three out of their last five games as of Sunday.
“We knew it was going to be a challenging season,” Viana said. “Anytime you lose five starting seniors and two guys we lost to clubs, we knew we were going to take some time. I feel like we’re jelling at the right moment, and hopefully we just keep building.”
Sitting at fourth in the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference following the win over Northwood, Seaforth (4-2-2 conference record as of Sunday) has a chance to jump Graham (4-2-1 conference record as of Sunday) for a third-place finish.
The Hawks are also in good playoff standing, sitting at 22nd in the 2A East RPI rankings as of Sunday. Following a big matchup against Southeast Alamance this week, the Hawks will host second-place Jordan-Matthews Monday for a chance to possibly boost their RPI position and build momentum going into the postseason.
“Our goal when we looked at the conference and knew who graduated was to get at least third,” Viana said. “If we can get third, we’ve accomplished our plan and then go to the playoffs. This is our original senior class. These guys have been here for four years. We want to send them off the right way with a playoff win.”
