By Ryan Bisesi
Associated Press
SALISBURY – For a game that was rescheduled several times, Salisbury sure seemed to be waiting on West Davidson.
When the time finally came to avenge their lone conference loss, the defending 2A state champions restored their honor.
Bobby Cardelle netted two goals in the second half to give him six in two games and Salisbury won its ninth consecutive Central Carolina Conference title in a 4-0 win against West Tuesday night at Ludwig Stadium.
Salisbury’s only CCC defeat came to West last month in a 1-0 loss in Tyro but any trepidation Salisbury coach Matt Parrish had coming in were settled with a quick start.
“I was a little apprehensive coming into the match,” said Parrish after his team’s ninth-straight win. “They outplayed us when we played at their place but during warmups I noticed we had a bit more intensity this time around. I was nervous but quickly got over it.”
Salisbury peppered West with plenty of shots last time without any goals. Tuesday, Salisbury made sure that didn’t happen again when Midfielder Zack Sukkasem scored the game’s first goal in the sixth minute on an unassisted score from the left side.
“The first goal from them really set the tone,” West Davidson coach Chris Brown said. “We made a couple mistakes and they won the ball and they scored again.”
Lucas Capito’s shot was stopped by West keeper Adam Schofield in the 20th minute. Cardelle, who finished the regular season with a team-best 32 goals, was hit with a yellow card and freshman goalie Max Fisher came up with a big save with four minutes left in the half.
“We knew that to win the conference, we only had to draw,” Cardelle said. “But you never want to play for the draw. We knew we were going to have to attack so we took it to them.”
Senior Miguel Urbina scored with 11:45 left to make it 2-0 going into halftime.
“When it was 2-0 we hit a little bit of a lull,” Parrish said. “They started taking it to us a little bit and we regrouped and refocused at halftime.”
Any stagnant period ended when Cardelle scored nine minutes into the half on an assist from Urbina. Cardelle netted a free kick four minutes later to complete the scoring. The Hornets (15-2-1, 9-1) outshot West (11-4-3, 7-3) 11-4.
“I got the ball and played it out wide to Miguel,” Cardelle said. “He made a great back heel pass to me and I just slammed it near post.”
The Hornets will face a wild card team in the first round of the postseason next week.
Parrish commended seniors Urbina, Brock Overcash, Spencer Dixon and Luke Hutton who were honored during halftime. The seniors have helped compile a 81-7-4 record in their four years and are 36-3-1 in the conference. Dixon has started each game since he’s been there.
“Brock’s one of the best players I’ve ever had,” Parrish said. “Night in, night out, he’s been our most consistent defender.”
The Hornets got four saves from Fisher.