Noel Fong (11) chases down a Shelby player trying to advance the ball in Newton-Conover High’s 2-1 win in the third round on Thursday. The Red Devils, last year’s state 2A champions, play Saturday night at Hibriten and the winner advances to the West 2A final./PHOTO COURTESY OF OBSERVER NEWS ENTERPRISE
Winner will meet East Lincoln or Salisbury for West 2A championship
HobbsDailyReport.com
LENOIR – An anticipated showdown between Newton-Conover High and Hibriten in the state 2A boys’ soccer playoffs comes Saturday night, with the winner advancing to the West 2A final.
Newton-Conover (20-3-1) — this season’s South Fork 2A champion and the defending state champion — travels to play Hibriten (24-0-2), the Northwestern Foothills 2A champion, in a 6 p.m. match.
The Red Devils are seeded No. 4 and the Panthers are the top seed, both eyeing a West 2A final on Tuesday against the winner of No. 10 East Lincoln (22-3-0) at No. 3 Salisbury (23-2-1) match. East Lincoln goes to Salisbury on Saturday for a 7 p.m. start.
The West 2A final will be at the highest remaining seed’s field.
The 2A teams still alive in the East are: No. 5 Carrboro (17-6-1) at No. 1 First Flight (18-1-1) and No. 22 East Duplin (16-6-2) at No. 2 Clinton (23-1-5).
Newton-Conover beat First Flight 1-0 in Raleigh for last year’s state 2A title.
The Red Devils face Hibriten having won or tied their last 16 matches, and they are pursuing their third state 2A title in five years.
Hibriten is the last unbeaten team this season in state boys’ soccer.
No. 10 East Lincoln at No. 3 Salisbury
The Mustangs (22-3-0) chase their first West 2A title after finishing second to Newton-Conover in the South Fork 2A this season.
Salisbury is 23-2-1 and has won 12 straight since a 1-all tie with South Rowan. The Hornets’ last loss was 2-0 to Ledford on Sept. 11.
East Lincoln has won four straight matches since an Oct. 24 loss to Newton-Conover on penalty kicks and also has won nine of 10 since the Red Devils beat the Mustangs 4-3 in overtime on Oct. 1 at East Lincoln.
The Mustangs’ other loss this season was 3-1 to Central Cabarrus.
STATE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS SOCCER TOURNAMENT
Note: For all 1A pairings and East 2A, 3A and 4A pairings, visit www.nchsaa.org:
Fourth round pairings
(must be played by Saturday)
West 2A
No. 4 NEWTON-CONOVER (21-3-1) at No. 1 HIBRITEN (24-0-2), 6 p.m.
No. 10 E. LINCOLN (22-3-0) at No. 3 Salisbury (23-2-1). 7 p.m.
West 3A
No. 9 Marvin Ridge (19-3) at No. 4 Asheville (23-1-1)
No. 18 A.L. Brown (20-4-1) at No. 3 Mount Tabor (20-4-1)
West 4A
No. 8 Myers Park (18-2) at No. 4 Hough (19-6)
No. 15 Providence (17-4-2) at No. 6 S. Mecklenburg (17-5-1)
