By Zack Ciboth, Sports Editor
The #1 seed UNC Pembroke women’s soccer team faced off against the #4 seed Barton Bulldogs in the first of two semifinals Friday afternoon at Bryant Park in Browns Summitt, North Carolina. The Braves and Bulldogs battled from start to finish and a late goal by the Braves helped seal things as they took the match 1-0 and headed to their third straight Conference Carolinas Championship.
“You know, good and bad when you’re the number one seed. It’s great to have time off, it’s great to heal, it’s great to train and it’s great to fine tune your game but your also away from the game and the routine of playing every Tuesday or Wednesday, every Saturday and I knew this was gonna be a big challenge,” UNCP women’s soccer coach Lars Andersson said.” Barton is a very well coached team. I want to give coach (Erin Stephens) all the credit in the world, and I want to give her kids all the credit in the world they battled and battled and gave us everything we could handle.”
A very defensive first half to start the game for both sides as both the Braves and Bulldogs goalies were stopping every shot that was coming their way. We went scoreless for the first 45 minutes heading into the halftime break.
” I said now you got the 45 minutes out of the way. Now you’re back into playing. We looked a little jittery, we looked a little nervous, we looked a little uncertain, you know that feeling of I don’t want to make mistakes so I’m a little overly cautious, overcomplicate the game a little bit. Once we got into the second half we settled down and started playing the game the way we know how to so I’m really proud of the way they responded,” Andersson said on his message to his team at the half.
“Just simplify our game especially like with the front runners, stop cutting back and forth. Like we have a lot of speed up top, so we just wanted to make sure we were utilizing our athleticism. Pushing the ball forward and seeing where we could go with that,” Harris said on responding to the halftime message.
The early part of the second half remained about the same until the 61st minute of the match when Maria Cancio found Ashleigh Harris and Harris took the ball and fired a shot in the back of the goal to break the scoreless drought as the Braves now held a 1-0 lead. The Braves defense stepped up big time late keeping Barton away from the goal as time expired sending the Braves to the championship.
” I think we just came out and tried to do our best. It was a little bit rough in the first half, but we got our stuff together ar halftime and just kind of brought it through to the end. As soon as we got that goal me and Abby (Lowery) on the outside wings, we dropped back just to make sure we can hold the win,” Harris said.
Harris led the way with four shots total with one being her late goal. Mercy Bell followed behind her finishing with six total shots and two on goal shots. Goalie Chiara Coppin allowed no goals for the 38th time this season.
“We’re definitely gonna be fired up. we’re gonna take the time to relax and ice and get recovered and then just get hyped for Sunday. We’re back-to-back conference champions and we’re trying to make it a third time. Wo that’s really the goal and we’ve made it this far. So, the next step is really winning that championship ring again. So, we’re excited, I’m excited,” Harris said.
With a Belmont Abbey 1-0 win tonight over the Francis Marion Patriots in the second semifinals, the championship is officially set. The Braves and Crusaders will battle it out for the Conference Carolinas Championship on Sunday with kickoff set for 4 p.m.
“Belmont Abbey is a team that beat us 4-3 earlier in the season so it’s gonna be an absolute battle. I have absolutely no doubt about it and so it’s going to be an exciting match. If you’re a football fan, you should come,” Andersson said.