Staff reports
West Rowan’s girls soccer team clinched a tie for the 3A North Piedmont Conference championship with a 2-0 win against Statesville Monday night.
Brittany Gibbons and Allison Baucom scored goals for the Falcons, ranked fifth in the state 3A rankings, to complete a season sweep of Statesville. The 11th-ranked Greyhounds had not lost since the last meeting with West on March 23. West, who has never won a conference title in women’s soccer, remained unbeaten in league play.
“I’m extremely pleased with our team’s performance,” West coach Nick Brown said. “Everyone stepped up and played hard tonight. Brittany and Allison came up with two very nice goals at important times tonight.”
Gibbons scored the first goal with 7:10 left in the first half thanks to an assist from Toni Lucente. Gibbons fired a shot from about eight yards out at the far corner to give the Falcons (14-1, 10-0 NPC) the lead for keeps.
Statesville (11-3-1, 7-2 NPC) came out strong in the second half with continued offensive pressure, but the Falcon defense turned away all Statesville’s threats. West goalie Allison Brantley made seven saves for the shutout, including a diving block of a shot from 18 yards out with1:40 to play.
“Allison Bailey was great in goal tonight,” Brown said. “She made a bunch of key saves and was very aggressive in the box. Her save with less than two minutes left was one of the best saves I’ve seen in a long while.”
Baucom put the Greyhounds away with a goal with under five minutes to play, booting the ball past Statesville goalie Natalie Stein from 35 yards away.
“I’m very happy with the effort and it’s great to get a win over a top team in the state,” Brown said.
The Falcons have a two-game lead in the NPC with two games left and have the tiebreaker with two wins against Statesville.