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By Brian Pitts

Davie Enterprise Record

Reynolds thumped Davie’s varsity soccer team 4-1 in March. Davie entered the rematch with Reynolds at 0-6 in the Central Piedmont Conference.

It’s safe to say coach Corbin Kopetzky was thrilled with a 1-1 overtime tie against the Demons on April 20.

“It’s the best ball we’ve played all season,” he said. “We moved the ball. One thing we’ve gotten very good at this season is identifying the problems we have to fix, and they fixed them tonight. It might not be a win in the column, but it’s a win for our girls. They’ve worked their butts off and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

There was nothing fluky about the tie after 100 minutes of action. It was 0-0 at halftime and Reynolds was probably fortunate to be in that position.

“We had the ball at least 60 percent of the first half on our offensive side,” Kopetzky said. “We shot six times.”

The first goal came from a Davie freshman, a Sarah Andrade shot that raised the bumps on your skin.

“I started her tonight. We switched a couple things up,” Kopetzky said. “She attacked the ball heavy, stole the ball, took a good touch and made a beautiful lower 90 shot – where I told them we need to put them when we talked at halftime. She hit the left post and it rolled in the right side of the goal. It was a heartstopper, but once it went in the back of the net, we all went crazy.”

Reynolds’ answer came off a corner kick.

“She headed it and barely squeezed it inside the right post,” Kopetzky said of the Demons’ tying goal.

Neither team could hit a winner from that point on, which covered 20 minutes of OT drama. But the War Eagles (3-7-3 overall, 0-6-1 CPC) found a new wave of confidence by holding off a team that is third in the league.

Freshman defender Jaden Sink played a crucial role.

“She was our savior,” he said. “(With the score 1-1), they took a touch, got past our back four and got around Avery (Yount, the goalie). Everybody thought it was going in and out of nowhere here comes Jaden. She saved it and got it out. She had a heck of a game. She stopped the game-winning goal.”

But also give credit to senior forward Katie Shupe, junior forwards Lexi Kulis and Mya McGowan, junior midfielder/defender Emily Garner and junior midfielder Rebecca Devericks.

“Mya does everything I ask of her,” he said. “Every time she goes in the game, she battles.

“Emily and Rebecca are holding down the center. Becca has been playing a defensive mid position and she’s everywhere. Emily switches sometimes between defense and midfield and she helps hold down the middle.

“Katie was very big offensively tonight. She had a couple of chances and she ripped them. She almost had a couple goals.

“We played through Lexi pretty heavily on the right side. She had an outstanding game.”

Notes: Davie took 15 shots despite playing its first game in 13 days. “We were firing left and right,” Kopetzky said. “We had more opportunities than they did.” … Reynolds moved to 4-6-2 overall. … The CPC standings at this point: West Forsyth 7-0, East Forsyth 5-1-1, Reynolds 3-2-1, Reagan 3-3-1, Mt. Tabor 3-4, Davie 0-6-1, Glenn 0-5. … Davie’s JV played its first game in 16 days and lost 4-0 to Reynolds. Although the JV is 0-7, Kopetzky can see steady growth. “They are getting better every game,” he said. “Their record doesn’t reflect it, but the work ethic is there and they’re moving the ball a lot better. It’s not kick and clear like we started the season.”