TYRO — Ranked first in 2A, Salisbury’s boys soccer team won its 17th straight match on Wednesday night.
The Hornets (19-1, 9-0) haven’t lost since they fell 3-2 to 3A Statesville on Aug. 26. They got two more goals from Bobby Cardelle and pulled out a 2-0 CCC decision on West Davidson’s Senior Night.
Salisbury won, even though West Davidson goalkeeper Adam Schofield could not have had a more spectacular game. He was making clutch saves here and there, diving, leaping, and kneeling, any which way he could. Consequently, he ended up with 15 saves by unofficial count.
Even his two hard-luck misses were amazing, coming as they did off two rebound goals by midfielder Cardelle.
The loss dropped West to 6-3 in the CCC, 9-9-2 overall, and puts the Dragons in a tie with Lexington for the league’s No. 2 seed in the upcoming 2A state playoffs.
“Adam kept us in it as long as he could,” said West coach Mark Davis. “We just didn’t suck up the rebounds. He kept us there. We told our guys they played tough.
“I hoped we could have applied more pressure, but we weren’t winning anything in the midfield, so we didn’t want to give up a man there to put more pressure up top. Maybe we could have controlled the ball on the ground a little bit. Salisbury’s so big there’s no way we were going to get stuff out of the air.”
Schofield had already come up with several nifty saves in the first half, but in the 36th minute, Salisbury attacked the goal hard. Schofield came up with a great body save, but the ball rebounded out to Cardelle, who punched it back in before Schofield could re-establish himself.
Cardelle scored again in the 69th minute of the second half, booting one in from a crowd in front of the net.
“Boy, he had several opportunities outside of those two as well,” said Salisbury coach Matt Parrish. “It’s kind of ironic that his two goals were probably two of his least effective shots of the night. He had several where their keeper (Schofield) made several really, really nice plays. Cardelle got two of those kind of poacher’s goals, but each time the back of the net moves it counts, so we’ll take them any way we can get them, especially in a match like this.
Salisbury has 10 seniors, including veterans of the 2011 state-title run when they were sophomores.
“We knew West had a lot to play for with seeding tonight and we knew we were going to get their best shot,” said Parrish. “I’m proud of the fact that our kids worked as hard as they did all night long.”
Salisbury had already secured its 10th straight CCC title and 12th in the last 13 seasons. West Iredell won the league in 2003.
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Notes: West Davidson closes out the regular season at East Davidson on Monday. … Lexington visits Thomasville on Monday. If both teams finish tied for second place, a special match for seeding will be held at a neutral site. … Salisbury’s Senior Night comes on Oct. 21 against North Rowan. … The playoffs start Oct. 30.