Carrboro collects another shutout in soccer playoffs

Perfection is elusive in sports.

When Carrboro defeated Midway by a 5-0 score Wednesday night in girls soccer’s 2A playoffs, it was a good performance, but not perfect. Despite seeing his Jaguars record yet another shutout, Carrboro coach Jared Drexler still was concerned about his team’s seeming inability to play a complete game.

“I thought we played really well in the first half, but it seemed like we kind of let our foot off the gas in the second half, which is kind of concerning,” he said. “Overall, we are happy with the win, but we know we are capable of playing better and we want to make sure we give a 80-minute effort.”

Natasha Turner, a junior midfielder, agreed with her coach that the first 40 minutes of Wednesday’s game were better than the second.

Turner struck first for the top-seeded Jaguars (18-1-2) in the opening minutes against 25th-seeded Midway (16-6-0), and she added a second score to help go up 4-0 by halftime.

“I definitely think we played a better first half. We worked really hard together and kept passing the ball around, and we had good opportunities,” she said. “The other team had a lot of opportunities (in the second half), but we still worked hard and kept them away from our goal.”

Carrboro ninth-grader Alexa Wojnovich, easy to spot on the field with her neon headband, also stood out as a striker for Carrboro, She scored twice, bringing her team-high goals total to 30.

“Alexa Wojnovich has been playing extremely well up top,” Drexler said. “She scored a couple goals in all the playoff games.”

Ninth-grader Olivia Winkler added a goal for Carrboro. Junior Miah Araba assisted on two goals, while ninth-grader Kelly Gosk and sophomores Lauren Gilliam and Kati Knotek each had made one assist.

The Jaguars have gone unbeaten for 14 straight games and have won 10 straight – all by shutout – since a 0-0 tie at 3A Chapel Hill on April 8.

Carrboro, the defending state 2A champion, advanced to host Clinton in the quarterfinal round of the N.C. High School Athletics Association playoffs. Heading into the fourth round, the Jaguars had outscored opponents 91-3, without giving up a goal this year to a 2A opponent.

Turner said the Jaguars team wouldn’t be looking past Clinton (21-5).

“We are just taking it game by game, we don’t want to think too far ahead,” Turner said. “We want to make sure we are focus on the game ahead and not other ones.”

It may not take a perfect game for the Jaguars to beat Clinton, but any team would have to play at its best to get a win against the Dartk Horses. Seeded at No. 4 in the NCHSAA East 2A and by far the strongest opponent Carrboro faced in the tournament’s first four rounds, Clinton outscored its forst 26 opponents by a marhin of 159-14.

“At this point in the playoffs, everybody’s going to be good,” Drexler said. “They got this far for a reason, and we got a huge target on our back being the state champions and the No. 1 seed, so we are going to make sure we are ready.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Carrboro collects another shutout in soccer playoffs."