Now healthy, Apex girls soccer readies for final stretch

With two make-up games still left to be played, in addition to the other remaining three games, the Apex girls soccer team will be ending its season with a flurry of contests.

“As best as we can to keep everybody healthy,” said coach Kevin Todd on trying to get through the stretch run. “And that’s just a matter of them getting time out especially on weekends to get rest and regenerated, which is hard because all of them play so much.”

Apex (5-6-2, 5-5-2) still has time to creep up the standings in a stacked Southwest Wake Athletic Conference – all but one of the Cougars’ five games are against conference foes – but it won’t be easy.

The Cougars still play conference leader Green Hope at home, second-place Middle Creek, third-place Panther Creek and last-place Cary. Apex went 1-2 in an important stretch last week, defeating Apex Friendship but losing 1-0 to Fuquay-Varina and 4-3 in overtime to Holly Springs.

Todd insists on using his bench more with the short rest between games during their final push for a playoff spot.

“You just hope you have a deep bench and that those players who are there as role players coming in, can come in and step up because we need them,” he said. “We are as healthy as we’ve been all season. We had a stretch that injuries kept cropping up. This is the final stretch. I guess since you know this is the final stretch, it’s easier to mentally prepare because you don’t have the whole season to prepare for. It’s the final stretch; it’s one game at a time.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2017 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Now healthy, Apex girls soccer readies for final stretch."