Pioneers rally past Avery
By Steve Behr
NEWLAND — It took Avery County just two minutes and 15 seconds to score a goal on Watauga. The Vikings would not score again the the final 77:45 of the game.
Watauga’s Ashlyn Clark gets ready to score the Pioneers’ first goal Friday. Photo by Steve Behr |
Instead, Watauga would tie the game eight minutes later, and then and then score twice more in the second half to take a 3-1 victory over the Vikings Thursday night.
Avery (13-3-1) saw its nine-game winning streak come to an end. The Vikings had outscored their last five opponents 18-1 and looked sharp when they took a 1-0 lead at the 37:45 minute mark of the first half.
“We just played flat in the first half,” Watauga coach Johnny Gailes said. “The first 20 minutes, we were just flat and we were not into the game. I have to give Avery High School credit. They came out and played hard.”
But Watauga has also been on a roll lately, having outscored its last three opponents 14-1 and is 4-1-1 in its last six games. Watauga (6-8-3) got the tying goal from Ashlyn Clark with 31:14 left in the first half after she worked her way free and got about five yards in front of the Avery goal.
Clark would get another shot at the goal, but it would hit the crossbar and the rebounding shot would go wide. After a sluggish start, Watauga picked up the pace in the first half and continued it into the second half, when Sydney Atkinson took a rebound off a shot from Kendall Baird and put it back into the Avery net with 35:30 left in the game.
“The second half we came out and they stepped up and they wanted the game,” Gailes said. “We’re 7-0 against Avery County and we didn’t want to lose tonight.”
Less than a minute later, Watauga struck again when Clark got her second goal of the game, putting the Pioneers in front 3-1 with 34:41 left.
“I think (Avery’s) morale dropped,” Gailes said. “When you’re down 3-1 and you were up 1-0, it kind of takes everything out of you. But the Avery girls played hard and I take my hat off to them.”
From there, Watauga settled for playing solid defense and keeping Avery from getting too close, except for one shot that keeper Katherine Mayhew smothered with four minutes remaining.
Watauga, 5-3-1 in the Northwestern 4-A Conference, will be busy completing its league schedule this week. It begins when they host South Caldwell Tuesday at Jack Groce Stadium on Senior Night. Watauga also hosts McDowell Wednesday and Freedom Friday night. Both of those games are at Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex.
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