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Story By Arabella Saunders, Editor-in-Chief
Photos by Madison Murry, Shorelines Yearbook
Two minutes till the start of the second half. Players march back to the bench from the locker room. Fans waft themselves with their own sweat-stained T-shirts and douse each other with water. Photographers stalk the sidelines. The clock winds down to zero. The First Flight women’s soccer players take the field with a sea of white-clad Lake Norman Charter players before them.
The whistle sounds. Fans squirm with a mix of heat-induced discomfort and anxiety from the scoreboard that reads “1-1.” And then senior forward Casey Bouker clashes with Lake Norman’s keeper and emerges victorious. Nighthawks up 2-1, just two minutes into the half. And then she does it again – a stunning 17 seconds later. Sophomore forward Nicole York slips a shot in four minutes later, then feeds another scoring pass to Bouker in the 48th minute. Delirious fans and even skeptical players – “I had to pinch myself to make sure it was real,” senior Alex Rodman said – scarcely can believe that the scoreboard now reads “5-1” just eight minutes into the second half.
One question runs through every spectator’s mind: “What the heck did coach Juan Ramirez say in the greatest halftime speech ever?”
“(I told them) that the other team was no better than us, that they only had one shot on goal by our own mistakes,” Ramirez said. “That we were controlling the game and if we keep doing that – control the people we need to control – this will be our game.”
Control they did. The Nighthawks (25-2-1) finished off the 6-1 victory over LNC and took home the NCHSAA 2A Women’s Soccer State Championship. Junior Sophie Morgan also scored in the second-half blitz against the Knights, who had entered the game undefeated before finishing their year 22-1-1.
“It feels awesome – we’ve been working for this since we were freshmen,” Bouker said. “It’s amazing.”
But what ended as a blowout victory for First Flight began with fans on the edge of their seats. The team as well as the spectators had learned of the success of Lake Norman Charter’s No. 10, Ayden Yates. The forward has verbally committed to Virginia Tech – as a sophomore – after tallying 90 goals in her first two high school seasons.
With Yates’ scoring prowess in the back of their minds, the players marched onto the field at N.C. State’s Dail Soccer Stadium at 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
“I was really nervous,” Bouker said. “When we walked out on the field, I was sweating and about to cry and my stomach hurt. This big of a field freaks me out.”
Sure enough, Yates found the back of the net just eight minutes into the game. But York got a huge equalizer six minutes before halftime after a nice feed from junior Ashley Forbes, and it was all Nighthawks from there.
Bouker’s nervous energy soon was replaced by triumph after scoring three goals in eight minutes.
“(The first goal) kind of hurt because the girl fell on me in the goal, but just scoring at the state championship is amazing,” Bouker said. “It’s so awesome. I think I’ve gotten a hat trick once this season, but this is amazing.”
As the onslaught continued, it was hard to tell if the fans or players were enjoying it more.
“I literally couldn’t believe it,” Rodman said. “I was looking at the girls all around me and laughing, thinking, ‘This is not happening. No way.’ ”
Despite their huge cushion, the players were determined to maintain their composure. Assistant coach Joel Mount reminded players that anything could happen in the next 30 minutes.
“We could have been up 7-1 and I still would have told them to keep going,” Mount said.
Added Ramirez: “The goal is, no matter what the score, that we keep the engine going.”
Morgan told all the fans to sit back and relax after her goal put the Nighthawks up 6-1 with 22 minutes left in the game. Her score off a pass from sophomore Camden Crook was part of FFHS’s 19-10 advantage on shots, including 15-2 in shots on goal.
Junior keeper Codie Patterson and defenders Ansley Feltz, Suki Holian Emma Byard, Sadie Owens and Megan Limbacher made sure Lake Norman Charter never got back into the game. Anne Elliott Taylor, Rodman and Lauren Montgomery kept control of things in the midfield as everyone merely waited for the clock to reach all zeroes.
After a bout of rain, playing time for freshmen and an appearance by senior captain Brayleigh Jones – the Nighthawks’ D-I standout who has missed much of the last six weeks with an ankle injury – it was time to celebrate the team’s second championship.
“I’m proud of these girls for all that they’ve accomplished,” Mount said. “They’re a great group and they all played their hearts out and it showed.”
Ramirez won a championship with the men’s team last year and has guided that team to four championship appearances in the last five years. This was his first year leading the FFHS women.
“I’m very happy for the girls because it’s an awesome high school experience that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives,” he said.
With her two goals and two assists, York was named the MVP and presented with a plaque in the postgame awards ceremony.
“It was really exciting,” York said. “I’ve never really gotten an award before, so it was great.”
Rodman, on the other hand, is used to winning awards – but the track and field standout had to skip her final championship race earlier this month to help the soccer team on this title chase.
“This is my seventh state championship and honestly, best one yet,” Rodman said. “It’s kind of surreal. It’s just something we’ve been thinking about all season and we never thought it would happen and now – look at us now.”
Senior Arabella Saunders can be reached at saundersar0214@daretolearn.org.
