SPENCER— Exactly how many shots the South Rowan Raiders fired on goal Wednesday night remains uncertain.
Vince Connolly’s scorebook has enough room for 12 shots per half. Each of those boxes was checked.
A more conservative South scorebook reported 15 shots for the whole game, which seemed a little low — just ask Cavalier goalkeeper Michael Hill, who spent the better part of 80 minutes sprawled in the grass after diving for shot after shot after shot.
South turned its offensive dominance into a 7-1 victory on the Cavs’ home field and earned a berth in tonight’s championship game of the Rowan County Soccer Tournament.
The Raiders will play Salisbury at 7 p.m. for the title, while West Rowan and North will meet at 5 in the third-place match.
“We’re excited to get to play for the championship again, retain our title,”said South senior Henry Menjivar, who scored twice. “We’ve got a pretty good team this year.”
Connolly, whose squad fell to 1-1 after beating East on Monday, would not dispute that claim.
“They have a lot of weapons,”the North coach said. “They didn’t have many breakdowns, they’re pretty quick and have good size. They were by far the better team tonight.”
The Raiders opened the scoring in the eighth minute when freshman Francisco Granados sent a loose ball in the box to Menjivar, who had an open net to hit.
Senior sweeper Dustin Efird got into the act for the next two goals. He sent a shot in from the left corner that glanced off a Cavalier for an own-goal at the 12-minute mark. Seven minutes later, Efird got it done on his own, dribbling in from the right side, nearly falling down after a defender closed, then recovering and blasting a shot into the upper left-hand corner of the net for a 3-0 lead.
The three-goal halftime lead increased stunningly fast. In the first minute of the second half, Granados found himself all alone in front of the goal and connected on an Adam Pethel pass. Two minutes later, Granados’ shot slipped under Hill and Pethel was there to tap it in for a 5-0 lead.
“I’ll have to bottle that halftime speech, sell it at coaching clinics,”Connolly said ruefully. “We come out and give up two goals in the first three minutes.”
South made it 6-0 in the 50th minute when Efird sent a long ball curling toward Derrick Beaver up the left side. Beaver’s centering pass hit Menjivar and the North defense couldn’t react in time to the speedy attack.
“We’re real fast, probably the fastest team we’ve ever had here,”South Rowan coach Chris Walters said. “I don’t know of anybody on the team that’s slow.”
South (1-0) made its only mistake of the night in the 61st minute. Hill boomed a kick past midfield that Efird headed behind him. Cavalier freshman James Nero outraced one defender to the ball and sent a shot past Andrew Stroud.
Beaver scored South’s seventh goal minutes later on a penalty kick after a handball in the box.
“I came in not knowing what to expect,”Walters said. “Our scrimmage was rained out. This was it to see what’s going on.”
After a successful opener, South may have the upper hand for tonight’s game as well. Walters emptied his bench early in the second half — and got to play after the sun went down in much cooler temperatures. Salisbury, meanwhile, needed two 10-minute overtime periods to beat West Rowan in a game that saw players dropping like flies from cramps in the oppressive late afternoon heat.
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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