Cleveland tops Smithfield-Selma, earns Two Rivers 3A soccer title

Before his team took the field with a chance to win the Two Rivers 3A Conference boys soccer championship Thursday night, Cleveland coach Nicholas Gruhn told his boys that to be labeled champions isn’t something given, but rather earned.

The Rams did just that by earning their first ever conference title with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Smithfield-Selma (12-6-2, 7-2-1) one night after knocking off defending champions Corinth Holders.

Lawson Lamm and Josue Perez scored 53 seconds apart in the second half to overcome a 1-0 halftime deficit as Cleveland showed no fatigue despite playing in its second high-stakes, emotionally grueling game in as many nights.

The Spartans dominated possession over the first 35 minutes of the contest and got on the board in the 10th minute when Nilton Perez obtained possession of the ball in the center circle of the field, picked his head up and lofted a stunning shot that looped over Cleveland goalkeeper Ethan Fellows.

It wasn’t until the latter stages of the first half and then even more so in the second half when the Rams were able to exhibit a little bit of patience and regain solid footing in terms of possession.

“They were doing a great job being super aggressive on us and taking us out of our game,” Gruhn said. “We just had to calm down, stay in our formation, stay more organized and knock some passes around to beat some of their speed and we responded with two goals.”

What it means

Cleveland gets the No. 1 NCHSAA playoff seed from the conference — and its first Two Rivers 3A title, while Corinth Holder (8-2 in the league) is the No. 2 seed. Smithfield-Selma enters as the No. 3 seed.

Turning point

Lawson Lamm knocked the ball out wide to Will Hall and received the return pass in stride en route to finally getting behind the stingy Spartans back four and leveling the game in the 62nd minute. It was the first successful wall-pass Cleveland (16-3-1, 8-1-1) pulled off in its attacking third, an accomplishment they would duplicate less than one minute later.

They said it

“We had prepared that those boys would be dead-legged having played Corinth (Holders) the night before and they went all out,” said Smithfield-Selma coach Austin Coates. “We definitely thought that would play a factor in the game and it didn’t. The Cleveland crowd came out with everything they had.”

Three who mattered

Josue Perez, Cleveland: The speedy Perez scored the game-winning goal for the second night in a row, this time after receiving a nice pass from Markel Miles on a give-and-go. Perez positioned himself beautifully on his defender’s back shoulder and slid the ball under a charging Chandler Lasater to put the Rams on top for good.

Garrett Lee, Cleveland: Lee anchored the Rams defense that had to contend with the creative, quick-footed Smithfield-Selma striker pairing of Perez and Jhonny Ventura. Lee and company remained organized and stout the entire game.

Nilton Perez, Smithfield-Selma: The senior standout stunned the Rams with his goal from distance in the first half. Perez almost completed the feat a second time on a quick free kick from over 30 yards out which Cleveland keeper Ethan Fellows needed to stretch to push the ball off the crossbar with his fingertips.

By the numbers

20: Season goals for Nilton Perez.

5: Goals allowed by the Rams in Two Rivers action all season.

0: Number of shots on goal from inside the 18-yard box for Smithfield-Selma in the second half.

8: Total saves by Ethan Fellows.

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Cleveland tops Smithfield-Selma, earns Two Rivers 3A soccer title."