3rd time’s a charm: Pembroke beats Prospect in PKs for girls middle school soccer title

PEMBROKE — For the third straight year, the Pembroke Middle School girls soccer team saw its championship hopes come down to a penalty-kick shootout.

After heartbreaking defeats the previous two springs, this time was finally different for the Warriors.

Pembroke beat Prospect 5-4 in penalties after playing a 1-1 draw through regulation and overtime, winning the Robeson County middle school championship Tuesday afternoon.

“It really was (exciting), especially for the girls,” Pembroke coach Trina Bullard said. “Considering that we had made it all the way there the last two years, and we lost it in the county (championship), it was exciting. They really worked hard.”

All five Pembroke players who took penalty kicks converted during the shootout, starting with Johnna Sampson, who gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead after Prospect missed its first shot. Abby McLean, Blakley Graham and Elaina McCallum also converted for Pembroke before Serenity Baker made the final shot to clinch the victory.

“The girls got really nervous. … They did really good with their kicks,” Bullard said.

Leah Usher, Rylee Chavis, Carson Smiling and Ronni Chavis made the last four penalties for Prospect.

Pembroke (12-0) took a 1-0 lead when Zole Godwin scored a goal with 19 minutes left in the first half, assisted by Sampson.

“It was actually really close to the goal,” Bullard said. “Johnna kicked it to (Godwin) and she just kicked it in; it was right in front of the goal.”

Prospect’s Ronni Chavis scored the equalizer with 24:30 left in regulation. The teams played the rest of regulation, along with two overtime sessions, without another goal, thus requiring penalty kicks to determine a victor.

Prospect (8-2-2), the No. 2 seed in the county tournament, reached the championship match with previous playoff wins against No. 7 Lumberton Jr. High and No. 6 Southeastern Academy.

“Prospect’s improved a lot too,” Bullard said. “We improved, but Prospect really improved a lot, because the first time we played them we beat them 5-0.”

Top-seeded Pembroke finished the season undefeated, reaching the championship game with playoff victories over No. 8 Parkton and No. 5 Red Springs. The Warriors lost the championship game to Prospect in 2022 and Southeastern Academy in 2023.

“This season was so much better than last year. This journey has been awesome. This group of girls, they were wonderful; coachable, enjoyed practice every day, wanted to be there. It was just an awesome journey, a fantastic group of girls. I’ve been coaching for 26 years, and this is one of — I’ve had other ones, but this is one of the best groups I’ve ever coached. … The three years of coaching soccer, this has been the best year of it.”