Senior Addie Lalier scored a goal in each half and classmate Leah Falor put the icing on the victory with an insurance score late in the match to lead Cape Fear Academy to a 3-0 win over Burlington Christian Academy on Tuesday to put the Lady Hurricanes into the NCISAA 2A soccer state semi-finals.
As much as the offense did its thing for CFA (14-2-2), it was the defense – led by seniors Kat Kirchoff and Anny Hymen, sophomore Katherine Drew Marapese and freshman Morelle Tinsley – and the goal-keeping of eighth-grader Delaney Mitchell that secured the win, and preserved the shutout.
“We’re really happy with the way the midfield played, especially in the second half,” Cape Fear Coach Meade McFarlane said. “We came out a little tight, we’re really happy to be in the playoffs, but once we got it settled down and got the first goal in the second half I thought we played much better.”
Lalier broke a scoreless deadlock 13:08 into the game when she took a pass from the left side off the foot of Maddie Buren and blasted it into the corner for a 1-0 lead. The key to finding the open space came off the efforts of Falor, who worked the ball down the right side of the pitch and sent a high pass to Buren to start the scoring play.
“We work on that a lot in practice, getting it to the center, and we try to open up space,” Lalier said. “I found the corner, luckily, and it got us going I think.”
That 1-0 cushion held up into the second half thanks to an excellent defensive play by Marapese. BCA was attacking down the near sideline and Cape Fear ‘keeper Mitchell came out of the net to stop attack. Mitchell lost her footing leaving an open goal and a shot appeared headed toward the empty net before Marapese threw her body in front of the attempt, knocking it away.
“Katherine Drew (Marapese) has been big for us, her and Kat (Kirchoff) our two center-backs, have had outstanding years and we knew if we could keep it away we’d be okay,” McFarlane said. “We didn’t want to go in (the half) at 1-1 so that was a huge play.”
Lalier made it 2-0 on a great solo effort, dribbling down the middle of the field and outhustling the BCA defender before settling a shot in the corner.
“Maddie Buren, she kind of made a little play on the side and I just kind of slipped past the defender and stayed really focused and found the corner,” Lalier said. “I had some missed shots in earlier games in that situation but today I got my groove back.”
McFarlane said he was not surprised by Lalier’s goal-scoring prowess.
“She has had an outstanding year, that’s her 33rd and 34th goals in our 18th game,” McFarlane said. “We know if we get her the ball we know good things are going to happen.”
Approximately 20 minutes later Falor knocked in a shot from 25 yards out to make it 3-0 and the Lady Hurricanes’ defense, along with some late saves from Mitchell, secured the win and sent Cape Fear into the 2A semifinals at 2 p.m. Friday in Winston-Salem against either Fayetteville Academy or Calvary Baptist.
“We’ve been here before two years ago and I think we were just happy to be there,” McFarlane said. “This year we’re in this thing to win it.
It doesn’t matter who we play, either Fayetteville Academy or Calvary Baptist, they are both really quality teams. But we feel like we can beat anybody if we play our game, if we move and we play tough I like our chances.”
The semi-finals are Friday, with the championship game set for Saturday in Winston-Salem.
Burlington Christan Academy 0-0=0
Cape Fear Academy 1-2=3
Goals: (CFA) – Addie Lalier 2, Leah Falor. Assists: (CFA) – Maddie Buren.
Shots: (CFA) – 12; (BCA) – 6.
Corners: (CFA) – 0; (BCA) – 1.
Saves: (CFA) – Delaney Mitchell 4; (BCA) – Anna Blaser 9.
Tennis
Cape Fear Academy 5 Westchester Country Day 0
Cape Fear Academy defeated Westchester Country Day 5-0 Tuesday afternoon in the quarter finals of the state tournament.
The Hurricanes swept three doubles points behind the tandem of Tristan and Tyler Smith, while Mike Mills picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win in singles and Caspian Goudarzi clinched the victory with a 6-1, 6-1 victory.
CFA continues its quest for a sixth state championship in the last seven seasons when the Hurricane netters return to the court Friday at Barton College in the state semi-finals. The finals will be held Saturday on the campus in Wilson.
Doubles- Tristan Smith/ Tyler Smith 8-1; Jack Gallop/Mike Mills 8-3; Jason Atwood/Robert Schuett 8
Singles: Mike Mills 6-0 6-0; Caspian Goudarzi 6-1 6-1
Millbrook 6 Hoggard 0
Hoggard’s season came to an end in the third round of the 4A dual team playoffs with a 6-0 defeat to Millbrook on Tuesday at the Jeff Holcomb Tennis Complex.
The Wildcats won all six singles matches in straight sets to advance to the state semifinals.
It was just the seventh time in school history Hoggard (15-3) advanced to the third round and the first since 2010.
Junior Chase Horton suffered his first singles loss of the season, but still finished 16-1. He was also 15-3 in doubles.
It was the final match for seniors Noah Milliken and Matt Jensen.
Milliken played No. 1 for the past three seasons and finished his career with 27 singles victories and 33 doubles wins. He ends his time with the Vikings tied for 13th in career doubles victories.
Jensen is tied for 20th in doubles wins at 28. He also finishes with a 19-4 singles record.
Singles: No. 1 Logan Weber (M) def. Noah Milliken 6-0, 6-2; 2. John Karlawish (M) def. Chase Horton 6-1, 6-0; 3. Austin Cobb (M) def. Evan Linett 6-4, 6-3; 4. Matthew Moody (M) def. Matt Jensen 6-1, 6-4; 5. Michael Moody (M) def. Dom Scialabba 6-0, 6-3; 6. Walter Creech (M) def. Dillon Cook 6-0, 6-2.
Soccer
Millbrook 1 New Hanover 0
The Wildcats finished the season with a 14-3-2 mark with a 1-0 setback in the first round of the state playoffs at Legion Stadium on Tuesday night.
Durham-Jordan 1 Laney 0
Laney fell 1-0 on the road in the opening round of the state tournament and finished the year with an overall mark of 8-7-4.
