CHATHAM COUNTY — The playoffs for men’s soccer — along with men’s and women’s lacrosse — are back this week and two of Chatham County’s three men’s soccer teams made the cut and earned bids for the 2020-21 NCHSAA Men’s Soccer Championships and will start their state title journeys on Tuesday.
In this playoff preview, we’ll look at each team’s season leading up to this point, their upcoming playoff schedule, key players and more, starting with the Men’s 1A classification.
Record: 5-3 (5-1 in Central Tar Heel)
Conference: Central Tar Heel 1A (second place)
Seed: 12
First Round Opponent: vs. (5) Gray Stone Day, Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Potential Second Round Matchup: at (4) Research Triangle or vs. (13) Langtree Charter, Thursday
It’s been a tale of two seasons for Woods Charter.
The Wolves started the season 0-3 after dealing with coronavirus-related quarantines, rain keeping them off of the practice field and plenty of postponements, the latter of which are consequences of playing soccer in the winter — during an exceptionally rainy one, at that. In those three games, they were outscored 10-1, getting shutout by undefeated Carrboro twice.
Since that less-than-stellar start, however, Woods Charter has turned up the heat, finishing the season on a five-game winning streak to end the year at 5-3. They just barely missed out on a Central Tar Heel conference title, which inevitably went into the hands of the now fourth-seeded Research Triangle Raptors, a potential second-round opponent for the Wolves.
Woods Charter is a team defined by its upperclassmen core, with six seniors that hold down all three areas of the field, including senior striker Kyle Howarth — the team’s most dangerous offensive weapon — and midfielder Marky Noronha, who score the bulk of the goals. At midfield, seniors Elijah Heatherington and Nicholas Mann act as versatile and crucial pieces on both sides of the pitch. And defensively, senior defenders Justin Galiger and Eli Terrell are aggressive, turnover-producing machines that make sophomore goalkeeper Coyt Neagle’s job easier.
Just as they started the season a bit slow, the Wolves are also notorious for starting games a little sluggish, but Howarth credits Woods Charter’s head coach, Graeme Stewart, for correcting that during games.
“He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever had and he definitely knows how to get the team up and running,” said Howarth. “We always have a slow start in the first half and he just gets the team up and we always come out with a win.”
Woods Charter will have its hands full with the unbeaten Knights (6-0-2) from Gray Stone Day, but as Stewart put it in the team’s regular-season home finale on March 9: “It doesn’t matter who you play, home or away, you’ve got to turn up … and play with everything you’ve got.”
Record: 9-1 (9-1 in PAC 7)
Conference: PAC 7 2A (conference champions)
Seed: 5
First Round Opponent: at (12) Northeastern, Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Potential Second Round Matchup: at (4) Washington or vs. (13) Trinity, Thursday
Jordan-Matthews was mere seconds away from an undefeated regular season.
In the Jets’ Feb. 10 loss to Wheatmore, 1-0, the Warriors scored the lone goal on a breakaway with 2.1 seconds remaining in the first half to end Jordan-Matthews’ chance at perfection.
Since that goal, Jordan-Matthews has played seven games, earning seven wins that include three shutouts — one being a 3-0 revenge win over Wheatmore — and five by two or more goals.
They’ve won games in just about any situation. Blowouts, second-half comebacks, close calls. They’ve seen games won on penalty kicks and leads change in an instant. If there’s a team that’s primed itself for a postseason run, Jordan-Matthews is it.
But all that matters are the results moving forward.
The Jets are a young team, as Head Coach Paul Cuadros is quick to mention, but they’re clearly hungry. Affected by academic eligibility issues and challenges from an abbreviated winter season, this team has taken every punch in stride and continues to dole them out.
Their defense is solid, led by the “Twin Towers” of Cristian Cruz and Irvin Campos Cervantes, two unforgiving defenders who wreak havoc on the back end. All season long, the Jets haven’t given up more than two goals in a game. And that’s only happened twice, a major credit to Cruz, Campos Cervantes and goalkeeper Ricardo Rocha.
In addition to their lockdown defense, they’ve also scored two or fewer goals just twice all year, averaging 4.2 goals per game and scoring as many as 10 (on March 2 vs. Randleman). They have a plethora of players — Franco Basurto, Cristian Escobedo, Alexis Ibarra, Zander Ocampo, among others — who have a knack at finding the net and will force opposing teams to match that production if they want to win because slowing it down won’t be easy.
If Jordan-Matthews begins playing its style — a controlled, possessive offensive game — and stops potential breakaway opportunities from Northeastern or any other opponents, the Jets are going to be a hard out in this year’s postseason.
Reporter Victor Hensley can be reached at vhensley@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @Frezeal33.