A leader. A scorer. A heck of a soccer player.

Jacob Pace was coming.

At the time, Pace looked like another ordinary eighth-grader. But he wasn’t ordinary, and the “network,” (a collection of Rowan Rage coaches), had informed Sexton, the Salisbury coach, of just that.

“I have never really hung around the youth leagues,” Sexton explained, referring to obvious reasons like becoming too close to one kid or forming the wrong opinion of another.

So he allowed, the experts, guys like Peter Broadway and Kevin Dempsey, for instance, to give him the scouting reports.

The reports on Pace were all correct.

“They told me I had a goal-scorer coming,” Sexton said.

No kidding.

Pace just finished an illustrious career at Salisbury that saw him score 43 goals in his senior year and a whopping 119 in four seasons. He was one of just seven North Carolina players to be named All-South and is seemingly a shoo-in for the East-West All-Star Game. He has committed to East Carolina and will sign with the Pirates officially in February. He’s two-time all-conference, two-time all-state, two-time Player of the Year in Rowan County....

Whew.

“He deserves it,” said Sexton. “He set some high goals for himself.”

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One of the goals was gaining a college scholarship and he definitely showed the attributes college coaches scour the bushes for. Sexton said he was a big-time player in big-time games.

“That’s when I can raise my game to another level,” Pace grins.

Ledford thought it could beat Salisbury for the Central Carolina Conference crown this season. But in each of the two highly intense skirmishes, the Hornets won 2-1. Pace had three of the four goals despite being triple-teamed with a specially designed triangle.

“That was an eventuality,” Sexton shrugged. “If you’re going to beat Salisbury, you’ve got to stop Pace.”

“I look forward to crunch time,” Pace says with another sheepish grin.

That’s about all you’ll get out of Pace — a grin and a sentence or two. According to his coach, he is not a typical soccer scorer, many of whom have been known to be on the brash side.

“A lot of scorers are emotional,” Sexton said. “But Jake is such a great player and such a humble person. He has real good composure.”

“I try not to let other people see what I’m thinking or how I feel,” said Pace.

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No one knew it when Pace was a middle school athlete, but he was already thinking college soccer. He started playing at the age of four but also was a young star in basketball and baseball.

“I played so much baseball over the summer I got tired of it,” he said. “I kept getting better and better in soccer and made that my one sport.”

Little did anyone know he was about to join a select group of ultra-prolific Hornet stars like Sappio Venn, Adam Sotak and Nick Goodman.

“There’s a lot of things you can’t work on that’s God-given,” Sexton said. “Jake didn’t score 119 goals by just being talented. He has really worked at his game. He has a good right foot and a good left foot and he’s got a bomb with both feet.”

His father must have realized it. When Pace was a freshman, he was working with his dad in the yard.

Perhaps it was his sophomore season that showed the potential. He still says his biggest thrill was beating a talented West Rowan team 4-1 after Salisbury had already suffered two losses to the Falcons. He had a hat trick in that game.

By his junior season, everything had come together. Although he’ll never admit it because of his loyalty to his teammates, he had become the main man: Big Jake.

But Pace wasn’t satisfied with his 30-plus-goal season. He began playing with top competition and lifting weights became a priority in anticipation of his senior year.

“You’ve got to be pretty strong and you’ve got to be in shape to play,” Pace said. “I also played as much as I could with players in other cities.”

The result?

No one could stop him. He even had two four-goal matches. He was the phenom that the “network” had bragged about four years earlier to Sexton.

“Idon’t go out expecting to score,” Pace said. “But when Daniel (Butner) feeds me the ball, it just comes naturally. I’ve always been able to score. That’s my strength.”

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Pace sat in the Ericsson Stadium stands last week watching the NCAA championships. He envisioned himself and East Carolina out there one day on national television in front of millions.

But you can bet that if it happens, he will never forget the high school that molded his game.

“Every year I was here, we made the playoffs,” Pace said. “It’s an incredible tradition. It went by fast.”

Sexton just shakes his head at the memories Jacob Pace has given him.

“He came here a good little soccer player,” he said.

Jake Pace leaves with a very big reputation.

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