In the fist half, the West controlled the ball and controlled the tempo.

"We dodged some bullets in the first half," East coach Larry Martin of Southern Pines Pinecrest admitted.

By then, the West had four big opportunities that missed net by narrow margins.

Sometimes the shots went wide. Sometimes they went high.

"We tried to possess the ball more and wear them down," Martin said.

Hoke County's Robert Purcell got the East's first shot about 20 minutes into the game.

"He had an immediate impact on the game," Martin said, who knew Purcell well from coaching against him in conference play.

The West's Sven Picton was named the Most Valuable Player. He had the West's last good chance to score with less than two minutes left in the game on a direct kick. He had seven shots in the game. Rocky Mount's Kingsley McLeod had 4 shots for the East.

By the second half, the East had evened the play, with several good opportunities to score, though the West kept getting chances.

Terry Sanford's Tim Johnson started the second half in goal for the East and he fared as well as first half starter Visili Dimopoulos of Wilmington Ashley.

Johnson had a diving save of the shot by North Mecklenberg's Matt Horn.

"Both teams had a great defensive back four," Johnson said.

Martin hesitated to call the game a defensive battle.

"There were fireworks the whole time," he said. "We both had opportunities. ... It was remarkable defense, but there were breakdowns to create those situations."

Apex midfielder Ryan Duffy had one of those opportunities early in the second half off a pass from Broughton's Watt Williams.

"Shooting is not my specialty," said Duffy, who said the game was both laid back and intense.

"Nobody wanted to be that guy that let his team down," he said.

In the girls game, the West won 1-0.

"We worked all week on attacking," East Chapel Hill coach Mark Kadlecik said, who guided the East. "As you can see, with 18 shots, maybe we should have worked on finishing."

Less than two minutes into the game, Cardinal Gibbons' Lauren McAnallen had a shot that came awfully close to getting past the goal line for East.

To many observers, it did break the goal line, but it was not scored a goal. The goalie caught the ball over her head and prevented it from hitting the net.

Hopewell's Lena Suarez squeezed one past Leesville Road's Kim Kern less than five minutes into the contest for the game winner.

"It was one of those games that whoever got the first goal was going to win," Kern said, who will attend N.C. State in the fall. Kern finished with 7 saves, and said he was excited about college.

Suarez had more shots (5) than anyone else in the game and was awarded the Most Valuable Player award.

In the first half, the East out-shot the West 10-6.

Green Hope's Nicole Danford, a UNC-Greensboro recruit, had a shot that hit the left goal post in the first half.

In the end, the East out-shot the West 18-12.

In the second half, the East's best chance may have come with about 10 minutes left in the game when Jack Britt's Renee Anderson passed the ball from the right across to Clayton's Libby Orsega, whose shot was blocked in front of the net by one of the defenders.