LANDIS — Sean Szakal spent the last 20 minutes of the game asking his players if they needed to come out and take a breather.

Few took him up on the offer. They all wanted to play their part in the epic battle Salisbury and South Rowan’s soccer teams forged Monday night, from the opening kick right down to the fantastic finish.

South’s goalpost was probably still reverberating from the Hornets’ last shot when the whistle blew on a 2-1 Raider win.

The game missed overtime by inches, as Daniel Butner lined up a free kick from about 30 yards out on the right side of the field and sent a ball arcing from left to right with more spin on it than a Tiger Woods short iron. Time stood still as the shot went over the defense, beyond Raider keeper Jesse Eldred — and clanked off the upper 90, where the cross bars meet at the upper left corner.

“That was unbelievable!” exclaimed Szakal, whose team picked up win No. 2 over the Hornets after beating Salisbury 3-2 in the title game of the Rowan County Tournament to start the season. “That was another repeat great game.”

The one South player more than ready to head for the sidelines was Eldred, the junior keeper who allowed an early goal off a defensive lapse, then slammed the door shut in the face of tremendous pressure after South’s back-to-back goals in the 53rd and 54th minutes.

“It was a long time. It seemed like it took forever,” Eldred said. “I knew they’d be coming and they had me on my toes. I couldn’t wait for the whistle.”

The Hornets (3-4-1) grabbed their only goal out of nowhere in the fourth minute, when Jason Wallace raced down field past two Raider defenders and tapped home a shot into the lower left corner from about 10 yards out.

The Hornets dominated the remainder of the half and just missed on several other chances. Eldred got a knot on his head for his troubles on one save, when Wallace and Will Ketcham raced on goal to take a long pass from Daniel Butner and collided with the sliding Eldred, who made the save.

South’s scoring chances were few and far between in the first 40 minutes.

“I knew they were going to be ready for us and I was afraid my guys wouldn’t be ready,” Szakal said. “I told ’em at halftime the difference was going to be whether you could respond.”

A great scoring chance came South’s way just minutes into the second half when Hornet keeper Seth Ruhlman strayed too far out of the box and got caught in an unenviable position. Raiders Adam Pethel and Nick Thomas kept the ball alive just outside Ruhlman’s range as the keeper scrambled to get back in goal. The Hornet defenders kept South from taking a shot until Ruhlman returned to his position, and he corralled a soft offering from Thomas to maintain the lead.

But in the 53rd minute, South’s luck changed for the better. Derrick Efird sent a through ball to Pethel, who charged down the left side of the box with Butner closing to make it a tough angle. Pethel simply lined it up with his left foot and fired a line drive to the right corner that went just over a leaping Ruhlman to tie the match.

“It was a great feed in from Derrick and it was a heckuva shot,” Pethel said. “I didn’t even know I had it in me.”

Seconds later, Henry Menjivar had one in him, too. Little more than a minute had ticked off the clock when a ball bounced high to the midfielder well outside the box. He settled the big hop and launched a ball that soared over Ruhlman, just under the crossbar, for a 2-1 lead.

“Midfield was real strong, and Henry Menjivar, definitely,” Szakal said. “He controlled a lot of stuff.”

Eldred was in control from that point on, although the Hornets just missed on several agonizingly close shots. Justin Leonard served a shot on goal that got cleared after a mad scramble with 20 minutes to go, Butner ripped a liner that Eldred punched away with 11 minutes to play and Wallace put a header on goal that trickled just outside the left post.

None of the chances was as good as Butner’s in the 79th minute, though.

“We talked about it and thought it was very makeable,” Salisbury head coach Tom Sexton said. “There were several options we had, but his chances were pretty good. It was an absolutely brilliant shot.”

“It was a heck of a shot,” Eldred said. “I don’t think I would’ve been able to get it. Dustin was standing there and he might have had it, but I was just real glad it went off.”