Carrboro shuts out Reidsville, again, for share of soccer title
One of the best defenses in N.C. high school soccer asserted itself again Thursday night as Carrboro earned a share of the 2A Mid-State Conference championship with its second 9-0 shutout of Reidsville in two nights.
Carrboro (9-4-4, 8-0-2 Mid-State) needed just more than 51 minutes to defeat Reidsville (1-13-0, 1-9-0), ending the game via the state’s “mercy rule” with a penalty kick by Jordan Fitzpatrick with 28:58 left on the clock. The Jaguars won by an identical score Wednesday night at Reidsville, ending that truncated game 4 minutes into the second half.
The two Mid-State rivals played on consecutive nights because of games rescheduled from earlier rain-outs.
Carrboro got one goal apiece Thursday from Michael Donovan, Jacob Zinn, Jesse Lal, Andrew Rento, Mackenzie Linstead, Matas Zdanvicious, Fran Romano, Ryan Laatz and Fitzpatrick.
Donovan scored twice in Wednesday’s game, as did Jesus Ramirez and freshman Alex Naismith, while Serdar Calikoglu, Laatz and Rento each got one goal at Reidsville.
Thursday’s win boosted Carrboro into a tie for the Mid-State championship with Siler City Jordan-Matthews (14-1-2, 8-0-2). Carrboro and Jordan-Matthews will play at 6 p.m. Monday on a neutral field at Southern Alamance High School to decide which team gets the conference’s top seed in the upcoming state playoffs.
“That game will have a lot of implications for the state playoffs, and we’re going to view it as a state playoff game,” Carrboro head coach Jared Drexler said. “It’s going to be good that we’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, we had games like this before.’ We’ll be able to take lessons from that game and apply them to the playoffs.”
Carrboro and Jordan-Matthews tied 1-1 in both of their regular season meetings.
Three who mattered
Jake Zinn, Carrboro: Ended the season as Carrboro’s top scorer, with 11 goals and 9 assists in just 12 games, after missing several in midseason with a foot injury.
Jordan Fitzpatrick, Carrboro: His play in the middle of Carrboro’s defense helped the Jaguars stifle multiple opponents, and Thursday was no different, as Reidsville barely maintained possession for more than 5 minutes total.
Andrew Rento, Carrboro: Just about everything that Fitzpatrick did applied to Rento as well. Playing left back, he shut down every Reidsville run along the wing that he faced.
By the numbers
27: shots taken by Carrboro in Thursday’s win.
11: shutouts for the Carrboro defense this season.
4: straight games without Carrboro giving up a goal.
3: goals scored by Michael Donovan in two wins against Reidsville.
3: points scored Thursday by Jacob Zinn (1 goal, 2 assists.)
2: goals given up by Carrboro in all Mid-State games. (Both were scored by Jordan-Matthews.)
1: shot taken by Reidsville on Thursday, from 215 yards out and wide right.
They said it
Drexler: “There were some things we were able to get away with tonight that we are not going to be get away with against Jordan-Matthews or in the (state) playoffs. I always tell the guys, ‘You don’t want to pick up any bad habits.’ We always want to play the way we should.”
This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Carrboro shuts out Reidsville, again, for share of soccer title."