Kudos to the Jordan-Matthews, Northwood and Woods Charter girls soccer teams last week.
The three Chatham County squads went 5-1 on the week and the Lady Jets and Lady Chargers advanced into the third round.
In Siler City, Jordan-Matthews two a pair of huge steps as a program under coach Chip Millard with a pair of home wins after winning the 2A PAC 7 Conference.
The Jets down Spring Creek in the opener 4-2 after trailing 2-0 in the second half. To say the least, the local bunch showed some real resolve in the face of adversity.
Jordan-Matthews then rode that momentum to a 7-0 thrashing of Bunn. The Jets will have their hands full with powerful Croatan in the third round down on the NC coast, but regardless of the outcome, its been a huge success this spring for the local bunch.
Northwood, meanwhile, just wow! The same can be said for coach David Holub’s club which plays in the toughest 3A conference in the state in the Big Eight.
The Lady Chargers closed in third place, and have proceeded to take down Cleveland and Wilson Hunt, both on the road. The grit and determination of the Northwood squad which has a roster mixed with both veteran and young players, was on full display.
Northwood now takes on a strong East Chapel Hill squad in the third round of the states, but its important to remember that the Chargers dealt the league champion Wildcats their lone Big Eight loss of the season. Whether or not this team can move on, it certainly shows how the NW program is ready to take steps to reach the new heights in the future.
As for Woods Charter, the Lady Wolves pulled off a great win over Holmes High, a very good program, in the first round off a great goal from Danielle Vaughn. Woods fell to top-seeded Franklin who’s 20-0 in the second round, but the young Wolves played tough for a half and have a lot to build upon in the future.
It was an agonizing week for area teams in the opening rounds of the state playoffs in baseball and softball last week.
All told, the Chatham County teams went 0-7 on the diamond, but easily could have won half of those games.
The Northwood baseball team was pure and simple, better than Jacksonville despite what the seeds said entering the contest. The Chargers left nine men on base in the last four innings, and simply could not get a key hit in the 3-2 loss.
And that is often the difference in these close games, especially in the state playoffs.
The Chatham Central girls softball team also could not get the timely hit in a 3-2 loss to West Montgomery, and the same was true for the Chatham Charter girls softball team who fell 8-7 to Swain County.
Despite the agonizing losses, the local squads gave great efforts and its always great to see how talented our kids are, and it annually shows with their efforts against other teams across the state of North Carolina.
