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MATTHEWS — Seaforth girls’ soccer head coach Giovanni Viana was confident that his team would be crowned as state champions Saturday, but he couldn’t have predicted how.
Being held without a goal through regulation and 30 minutes of extra time, playing on their heels for most of the game and having different players step up, the Hawks took down Pine Lake Prep in a penalty kick shootout, 6-5, to win the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 2A state title at the Mecklenburg County Sportsplex in Matthews, North Carolina.
“It feels magical because we talked about this, and we made it happen,” Viana said. “A few times in you are able to make your dreams come true, and we did tonight.”
Coming out the gate, Pine Lake Prep, the top seed in the 2A West region, brought the fight to No. 4 seeded Seaforth, hounding the Hawks with solid on-ball pressure and speed. The Pride controlled most of the possession in the first half and had little trouble finding scoring opportunities.
Pine Lake Prep kicked a barrage of shots at Seaforth’s sophomore goalkeeper Katie Leonard. Some just missed, but for most of the attempts, Leonard got in the way.
“Our defense is strong, so (my teammates) take away all of the shots I can’t save,” Leonard said. “They give me ones I can, and I make it happen.”
Leonard saved goal after the goal in the first half, keeping Seaforth afloat as its offensive attack just wasn’t working. The Hawks took just three shots in the first half as Pine Lake Prep neutralized sophomore Sofia Viana and junior Caitlin Erman’s ability to orchestrate the fast, downhill two-girl game that had been working all season.
“During halftime, we just said, ‘guys, we’ve got to move. It’s a big field that plays into our ball movement,’” Viana said. “No one moves the ball like us. We possess like no one else. All you have to do is pass and move, and the game will settle in. And, it eventually did.”
In the second half, Leonard continued to be a wall, and Seaforth, doing a better job of matching Pine Lake Prep’s intensity and physicality, began to find more looks at the goal. The shots just didn’t fall for the Hawks, though, including a free kick from Viana with 29 minutes left in regulation and two shots on goal from Erman and sophomore Luisa Olmos in the final 10 minutes.
With the help of Leonard’s dominance in the goal, the game went to extra time. In the first extra 10-minute period, fatigue started to take effect as both teams struggled to get much going offensively. Pine Lake Prep broke through Seaforth’s defense a few times and even had a near goal on a high shot halfway through the first overtime period, but Leonard jumped and knocked the ball over the net.
Still scoreless after the first 10 minutes, Pine Lake Prep almost had another goal on a header from a corner kick, but Leonard laid out and grabbed the ball with just under six minutes left to play in the second overtime period.
Neither team could get the ball in the net in extra time, even in the two extra five minute periods in which one goal would have won the game.
In penalty kicks, both teams mirrored each other with both making their first attempts, missing their second attempts and then evening the score again with their third tries. On the fourth round of penalty kicks, Leonard saved a goal and then made one on her own to put Seaforth up, 3-2. Yet, Pine Lake Prep equalized the game once again after saving a goal and making their own in the fifth round.
After Pine Lake Prep’s Elizabeth Perri put the Pride up, 4-3, on the next round, Seaforth senior Sam Tucker made a huge penalty kick immediately after to keep the Hawks alive. The same sequence of events happened in the seventh round, and that time, Erman knocked in a penalty kick to extend the game. Both teams missed on their eighth attempts.
Leonard laid out for one last save on the ninth round, setting up freshman Elizabeth Platt for the game-winning penalty kick.
“I wasn’t really prepared to take (a penalty kick) today,” Platt said. “I ended up switching last minute…I just stepped up. Someone else said they were a little nervous, so I just said, ‘I’ll take it.’”
Platt kicked the ball left and just over the reach of Pine Lake Prep sophomore goalkeeper Madison Harris to clinch the win. Immediately after, victory set in for the Hawks and the team piled on top of Platt while celebrating their first state title.
Leonard earned the 2A state championship game MVP honors.
Losing just one senior after this season, this may not be the end of an impressive three year run for Seaforth’s girls’ soccer program. The Hawks have yet to miss the state playoffs since their inception in the 2021-22 school year, and last season, Seaforth reached the third round with a team made up of mostly freshmen and sophomores.
“Just one player graduates (Sam Tucker), (and) Sam was a beast today, too,” Viana said. “But, everyone comes back. We’re thinking repeat…More mature, older, faster, stronger — repeat.”
