Bill Goodman almost made it to the sideline.
Then Daniel Butner tackled him from behind and the rest of the Hornets piled on. Even Salisbury goalkeeper Seth Ruhlman sprinted past midfield to celebrate the game’s first goal.
Technically, the Salisbury boys soccer team must wait until Wednesday to earn a league title. But Monday night’s 3-0 victory over heated rival Ledford sure looked like a conference championship match, and in essence, it was.
Salisbury now stands 12-1 in the 2A Central Carolina Conference, that one loss coming at Ledford. The Panthers dropped to 12-2. All the Hornets must do now is take care of Wednesday’s make-up date against Lexington — a team they beat 5-0 last week.
“That’s the real challenge, to beat a team after this emotional game,” Hornets head coach Tom Sexton said. “But if you look at our kids, they’re like, ‘OK, we’ve still got something to do.’ ”
After that initial goal celebration, it was business as usual. Salisbury tacked on two more scores, shook hands with the down-and-out visitors and huddled at midfield.
The Hornets then headed home, perhaps too tired to celebrate after the grueling, emotional night.
“We built toward this for five days. We’ve been wound tight,” Sexton said. “Playing Ledford is so difficult. And it’s always for something every time we play. It always comes down to the last match.”
All the Panthers needed Monday night was a tie, so Ledford’s top player, Bobby
Dabbs, stayed in the back. Salisbury owned most of the good first-half scoring chances, but keeper Ben Kiefer, Dabbs and the defense maintained an 0-0 halftime score.
The Hornets kept up the pressure in the second half and finally broke through in the 54th minute. Goodman came across the middle of the field some 20 yards out from the goal with a pair of defenders on him. He dribbled long enough to create some space, then rocketed a shot with his left leg into the upper left-hand corner of the net.
His goal set off the wild celebration, drew a loud standing ovation from the crowd and set the tone for the final 26 minutes.
“At the beginning of the second half, it changes the whole complexion of the game when you score early,” Goodman said. “It got the momentum going and we put three magnificent goals away.”
The Panthers immediately went into attack mode, bringing Dabbs up, but the Hornets were prepared.
Fast, physical midfielder Lynden Zuniga shadowed Dabbs instead of concentrating on scoring. Butner played plenty of offense, but also knew where scoring threat Brandon Hicks was and shut him down.
And defenders Drew Griffith, Daniel Wallace and Jeremy Rehders, along with Ruhlman, kept the ball out of the back of the net.
“Our kids bought into the game plan, even though it didn’t look like the way we play, pushing forward all the time,” Sexton said. “We neutralized what they had.”
The Hornets (18-3-1 overall) also managed to score two more times. In the 69th minute, Butner sent a long throw-in toward Nick Gregory in the goal box, but the ball sailed over his head. When Gregory turned to see what happened to his missed header opportunity, he found the ball back at his feet: It had glanced off a Ledford defender and rolled back to him, so Gregory kicked it in for the 2-0 edge.
“I don’t really play there that much,” said Gregory, who scored just the second goal of his career. “He (Sexton) moved me up here. I happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
Gregory wasn’t playing defense —his usual position — because Hornet assistant coach Jennifer Shoaf noticed Ledford (15-6-1) trying to take advantage of Gregory’s sore ankle early in the second half. She mentioned it to Sexton, who pulled Gregory forward and sent Bryan Goodnight back.
“He seized the moment to take advantage of the opportunity to score,” Sexton said.
The Hornets’ next opportunity came just two minutes later, when Alex Beaver and Zuniga ran together down the right side. Beaver made a nice feed to Zuniga, who put home the third goal.
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