Familiar matchups dot NCHSAA playoff openers for area sides

When the NCHSAA girls soccer playoffs kick off Monday, May 13, three teams from the Times readership area will be facing some familiar foes.

Fike earned the No. 11 seed in the 3-A East draw that will bring 3-A Quad County Conference rival West Johnston, the No. 22 to Wilson for the first round while 2-A Neuse 6 Conference rivals Beddingfield and North Johnston will scrap in the 2-A first round in Kenly.

In the other first-round matchups that involve area teams, Hunt, the 3-A East No. 4 seed, will host No. 29 Croatan while No. 21 Southern Nash visits No. 12 Dixon in Holly Ridge and No. 19 C.B. Aycock is the guest of No. 14 Greenville Rose.

Fike (17-3-1) finished second behind Hunt in the Quad County, just ahead of West Johnston (13-6-1), the only QCC team to beat the Warriors in three years. T

The Golden Demons thumped the Wildcats 6-0 in Benson on March 12 but a month later had to fight to a 3-1 victory at home against a resurgent West Johnston.

“We obviously are very familiar,” Fike head coach Chris Mizelle said in a telephone interview Friday after the brackets were made public. “We did not have to spend a whole lot of time on figuring out a scouting report or anything like that today. Obviously, we’ve played them twice and both games have been tough and I wouldn’t expect anything different on Monday, but we’ve been able to get two wins out of it, and hopefully it’ll be a third on Monday.”

For Beddingfield head coach Ed Hunter, getting to play a rubber match with North Johnston was almost a blessing for his scrappy Bruins, who split with the runner-up Panthers in the 2-A Neuse 6. Beddingfield (7-7, 5-5 Neuse 6) won 4-3 at home April 8 and lost 2-1 at North Johnston (10-5-2, 6-3-1)

“They’re a good team, man. Anybody you go play in the playoffs, you’ve got to be ready,” Hunter said. “I think it’s not a bad draw for us, first because we both obviously have the opportunity to win because we both split our season games, so it’ll be a good game.”

Hunter said the short trip to Kenly is better than traveling an hour or more by bus.

“I also like that it’s not such a hardship on our girls if they got to travel for such a long time and sit in a bus and then get to the field and all of a sudden have to play soccer,” he said. “So I like that aspect. There’s not going to be so much of extra baggage for us because it is a short distance for us to travel.”

Fourth-seeded Hunt (15-4-1, 13-1 QCC) is not familiar with its first-round foe, No. 29 Croatan, which is 6-9-1 overall and went 4-5-1 in the competitive 3-A Coastal Conference that includes No. 7 West Carteret, No. 12 Dixon and No. 17 Richlands.

“Croatan’s a tough draw at 29,” Hunt head coach Richard Frazier said. “They played in a conference with West Carteret and Dixon and there was one game separating the three going into the final game. A lot of low-scoring games, so we’re anticipating a very organized, very well-coached team.

“Cam Ormsby is the new coach there and he’s coached at some high levels before and does a really good job with the program. So even though they’re the 29 seed, I’m looking at them as they were one or two games away from being conference champions. So it’s a tough first draw, but at least we have them at home and we’re going to put forth a good effort — we hope.”

The Warriors have reached the fourth round each of the last two seasons but Frazier is only concerned with the first round right now.
“And, at this stage of the game, which we try to do each year is, one game at a time,” he said. “So that’s the mentality that we have right now, because when you get to the playoffs, you’ve got to win or you go home, so we don’t take anybody lightly. One game at a time and survive and advance is what we’re trying to do right now.”

Mizelle shared the same sentiment but was generally happy with the Demons’ draw as the highest-RPI team that didn’t win a conference championship. If it beats West Johnston, Fike could travel to No. 6 Currituck County in the second round Thursday or host No. 27 Northside-Jacksonville.

Mizelle said that there were no surprises in the bracket with the NCHSAA seeding formula an easy deduction.

“So, you know, we were pleased with the draw,” he said “I think we’ve had some tough luck on certain years, whether it be boys or girls in where we fell. I think this is a route where we can have some success and make a run and, you know, the further you get, the more difficult it gets, no matter where you get placed. So hopefully we we can take it one game at a time and, play well on Monday and get a win and hopefully turn around play well on Thursday and, and go into the next week and try to win there as well. So, I think there’s always upside and downside wherever you get placed, but I feel pretty good about where we were lined up.”

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