The Mount Airy soccer team continues to find ways to win and keep its unbeaten season alive.
Seven days after a 5-3 victory against North Surry, Mount Airy traveled to North on April 12 for the rematch and faced another close battle.
Mount Airy took a multi-goal lead early in the match, which the Granite Bears also did in the first meeting by going up 3-0. This time around it was a 2-0 game in the first five minutes before North responded with a pair of goals late in the first half.
Paola Ramirez scored the decisive goal for the Bears in the 47th minute, then Mount Airy held on for the 3-2 win.
The Bears improved to 11-0-1 with the victory, while the Greyhounds fell to 1-10-1.
Mount Airy is ranked No. 2 in the 1A West in the NCHSAA RPI Rankings for April 14, trailing only the defending 1A State Champion Christ the King Catholic High School (7-1-2). The Granite Bears are the only team in the 1A division, East or West, that have yet to lose a match this season, while the Crusaders are one of two teams in the 1A West with just one loss.
The Bears are the only non-charter or non-private school ranked in the top-11.
This year’s Mount Airy team is the program’s fastest to double-digit wins, doing so through its first 11 matches. This breaks the record set by the 2022 Bears that reached 10 wins in 13 matches by starting the year 10-0-3.
The Granite Bears have scored at least two goals in all 12 matches this season. The team didn’t take long to reach that mark against the Greyhounds as Alex Rose and Kate Deaton found the back of the net early on.
Rose and Deaton are two of Mount Airy’s four leading scorers on the season, with Ramirez – who later scored in the second half – holding the No. 1 spot. The Bears spread the love around and don’t have just one dominant scorer, though, as no one on the team averages more than one goal per match.
North Surry scored nearly half of its 15 goals this season in its past three matches: three against Mount Airy on April 5, two against Surry Central on April 10 and two against Mount Airy on April 12. The team’s two leading scorers, Cynthia Chaire and Kimberly Elias, both scored in their home match against Mount Airy.
A free kick from Elias helped cut the lead to 2-1, then a well-placed bounce over the keeper from Chaire in the 33rd minute tied things up. The goal was Chaire’s fourth during that three-match span.
Elias nearly had a high-arching through ball bounce over the keeper to start the second half, but it was nabbed by Avayah Wall. Elias left the game soon after with an injury and did not return.
Mount Airy stayed on North Surry’s half for most of the second half. The Bears took seven corner kicks in the half, including four in the first 15 minutes and two in the first five minutes.
Despite the barrage of corner kicks, it was a through ball to Ramirez that set Mount Airy up with its third goal. North Surry keeper Baley Hawks got a hand on the hard shot when facing a one-on-one situation, but the ball still found its way into the net.
North Surry’s two best chances to equalize in the half were separated by less than 90 seconds. The Hounds threatened to get into the box in the 58th minute before a clearance from Rose, but North’s Anna Escobar intercepted the clearance and booted up to Chaire. Chaire fired a shot that sailed wide of the mark.
After the ensuing goal kick it was Escobar once again feeding a pass to the offense, this time finding Dalila Martinez Garay up the center of the pitch. Wall was the only Bear between Garay and the goal, but it was Mount Airy defender Carley Hill that swooped in at the last moment to clear out for a corner kick. The Bears prevented a shot from the Greyhounds on the corner.
Wall only touched the ball two more times in the game, and both resulted from the keeper leaving her line to prevent a shot.
The Bears stayed on North’s half and kept pressure on the defense. The near-constant pressure from Mount Airy forced North to drop its midfield back to help, so when a clearance was made it was difficult for the home team to mount a counter.
Janet Ramirez redirected a corner kick from Laura Livengood into the goal in the 25th minute, but a handling call was made to negate the score.
Mount Airy continued to pepper shots on the Greyhound goal through the end of regulation, but the score remained at 3-2.
The Granite Bears average 3.8 goals per match and have scored at least three in each of their past eight matches.
North Surry completed the nonconference portion of its schedule with the Mount Airy match, while Mount Airy is set to close the regular season with a nonconference match at Forbush.
Mount Airy sits atop the Northwest 1A Conference standings with a perfect 5-0 record. North Stokes sits in second place at 4-3 in league play, followed by South Stokes at 2-1, Elkin at 2-2-1, East Wilkes at 2-3, Alleghany at 0-6-1 and Starmount at 0-4.
North Surry is 0-5 in the Foothills 2A Conference but looks to make up ground in its rematches through the league. Wilkes Central leads the conference with a 6-0 record, followed by Forbush at 5-1-1, Surry Central at 3-1-2, East Surry at 2-2-1, West Wilkes at 2-4, and North Surry and North Wilkes both at 0-5.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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