Fuquay-Varina girls soccer is young, but showing grit

The Fuquay-Varina girls soccer team opened up the season in style, posting three straight shutouts including two at the Battle at the Beach tournament at Onslow County’s Dixon High.

Coach Nick Acosta’s young team, however, has stumbled since coming back to the Triangle and Southwest Wake Athletic Conference play with four losses – three to top-10 teams in The News & Observer area rankings.

“It’s the story of this conference,” Acosta said. “You run into the juggernaut of our conference, and if you don’t play well, you are going to get beat.”

The Bengals (3-4, 1-3) have continued to play well defensively, anchored by goalkeeper Rachel Howard. Fuquay-Varina lost 3-1 to undefeated and untied Green Hope and 2-1 to unbeaten Leesville Road.

But Fuquay also only has seven goals in seven games with junior Trinity Davis leading the way with three. Davis, freshman Josey Wilson, senior Hannah McClaugherty and sophomore Maddie Smith are hoping to gel more as the year goes along.

“I think we need to play more as a team, and not as single players,” said Wilson, who has one goal and one assist on the season.

She added that the way the team played at the Battle at the Beach is what needs to return.

“It was grit,” she said. “And we played together as a team. We dug deep and we played so hard.”

Acosta agreed.

“Absolutely,” he added. “We are a very young team, and if we don’t work hard, results like will go against us.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2017 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Fuquay-Varina girls soccer is young, but showing grit."