Soccer continues improving as season continues

Published 1:40 pm Tuesday, April 30, 2024

By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

Reagan’s varsity soccer team is 12-2 and holds the No. 2 spot in the Central Piedmont Conference. That Davie, in defeat, has played 2-1 and 1-0 games with the Raiders says a great deal about its heart.

So does a 1-1 overtime tie at Reynolds on April 17. Davie lost the first meeting 1-0. The matchup in Winston-Salem lasted 100 minutes, and it saw Lanna Robinson deposit her 13th goal of the season – the most in nine years.

Robinson scored the game’s first goal with 10 minutes remaining. It was ignited by Sarah Andrade’s corner kick.

“Sarah takes the corners and puts them where they need to be,” coach Corbin Kopetzky said. “She’s done it for three years for me. Caroline Mitchell hit it and then it deflected off of Lanna Robinson’s thigh and into the back of the net.”

Davie caught a bad break with 1:30 remaining in regulation. A foul was called on Robinson, and a Demon drained the free kick to force OT.

“(The call) was questionable, but you’ve got to roll with them,” Kopetzky said. “It was a nailbiter. It was a little heartbreaking.”

Davie got a big boost from senior Maddie Hayes.

“We had a player go down and had to miss the rest of the game,” Kopetzky said. “Maddie went to right back. She held her own against an outstanding player and did what she needed to do. She has improved tremendously under my time coaching her. She got thrown in about 10 minutes into the game and played 90 consecutive minutes. She rose to the occasion and made some big plays.”

What a night it was for sophomore goalie Aubrie Pulaski.

“Aubrie made some saves in regulation and overtime that were out of this world,” he said. “Her potential is through the roof.”

The girls have jelled unbelievably well and created an up-and-coming team.

“These girls are locked in,” he said. “They have the goal of making the postseason. It’s happened eight times in school history. We had to do everything we could not to walk away with a loss. We’ve played great team ball all season. There’s so many things to say. I’m really proud of this team.”

East 3, Davie 0

Things did not go well at East Forsyth. The teams tied 1-1 on March 18, but in Kernersville on April 22, East (6-6-2) climbed back to .500 at Davie’s expense.

Reagan 1, Davie 0

In a home game April 24, it was 0-0 at halftime and Davie had a shot to knock off Reagan for the first time in 28 tries. Unfortunately, it did not happen.

“They had a shot from right outside the 18 and capitalized on it,” Kopetzky said.

The bright side: Pulaski shined again in goal and Davie (5-6-2 overall, 2-6-2 CPC) forced Reagan to sweat it out.

“Aubrie played an outstanding game in goal,” he said. “She made very high quality saves that helped us be so competitive in the game.

“We are a better team than we were day one and than we were the first time we played them. We competed the whole game and we never quit.”

Note: Robinson’s 13 goals are the most since Claire Devereaux had 14 in 2015.