Leesville’s single goal over Heritage enough to advance in soccer playoffs

RALEIGH By no means was it pretty - the field conditions made sure of that.

After the Triangle took in a downpour for two consecutive days, No. 5 Leesville Road hosted No. 28 Heritage in the first round of the 2015 N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A soccer playoffs Wednesday night.

The turf wasn’t ideal - far from it - but both teams played on. In the end, the Pride’s lone goal was enough to advance them, using a 1-0 margin to defeat Cap-8 foe Heritage (11-7-4).

“The first half was very even,” Leesville coach Paul Dinkenor said. “We got better as the half progressed. We made a few changes at halftime and the kids played a lot better.”

Dinkenor said his team was over-dribbling. One strength of the Pride (14-4-3), according to Dinkenor, is they are small and quick, able to move well in space. That was a non-factor.

“You need some sort of figure skater to do something on this,” Dinkenor said. “I thought we maintained. We’re not a long ball team at all.”

Leesville maintained long enough, and when the opportunity presented itself in the second half, it capitalized.

Senior Parker Yount found himself streaking towards the net and was spotted on the wing by Drew Walcyzk. With an optimistic mentality, Yount fired the shot and found the back of the net at the 26:43 mark.

“With the terrain how it is we thought, ‘Why even take a touch? Just whack it,’ ” Yount explained. “If it’s a bad bounce it goes in, if it’s a shot it goes in. The chances were with us. Sure enough it went in. It was a blessing to get the goal because it was all we needed.”

Well, not all. Heritage still had plenty of time remaining, but the pressure was on the Huskies, not the Pride, who were able to relax a bit more once they got a goal on the board.

“After that one we didn’t want to stop, but we did go a little more conservative,” Yount said. “It worked out for us.”

What also worked out was keeping Heritage senior Logan Shytle contained. Shytle has scored 41 goals this season for the Huskies. Yount said the Pride was concerned he would punch one in the final minutes, but thanks to some outstanding defense, Leesville was able to pitch a shutout.

“I was proud of our defense,” Dinkenor said. “Tanner Gold in goal, Matt Bissette in the back, Alex Baker and Wesley Dunn, they all did extremely well.”

Dinkenor described the game as “high intensity” and thought it would be more scoring (Leesville outscored Heritage, 8-2, in the previous two meetings this season), but both defenses stepped up. Starting out, the Huskies, who had three ties and two wins in their last five games, were definitely the aggressor.

“I thought we were brilliant the first 20 minutes,” Heritage coach Scott Sloan said. “We came out, we pushed, we challenged, we just couldn’t get anything on frame. We had opportunities … that’s kind of been the story of the year.”

In all but three game this year the Huskies scored first. Sloan didn’t want to use the muddy conditions as an excuse, especially since both teams had to deal with it, but he knows their game wasn’t played like it was supposed to be.

“You just hate to lose in these conditions, 1-0,” he said. “At times it didn’t look like soccer. You’re asking kids to just kick the ball. That’s the hardest thing right now, we didn’t see the game the way it’s supposed to be played. But they scored one, we didn’t and that’s the end of the story.”

The match marked the end of the story for Heritage but the next chapter for Leesville, who will play another league foe, No. 12 Broughton, Saturday. Broughton defeated South View, 3-0 to advance.

“We’ll take confidence from this game,” Yount said. “Not cockiness. We didn’t get here last year (second round) so it’s already an accomplishment to get past it. But it’s survive and advance.”

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Leesville’s single goal over Heritage enough to advance in soccer playoffs."