HobbsDailyReport.com
NEWTON – There’s one more step for Newton-Conover High’s boys’ soccer team to take to be the best in North Carolina among 2A teams.
The Red Devils — after two straight seasons of being eliminated in the fourth round — broke through on Tuesday night to reach the state 2A final again by beating visiting Patton 3-2 to advance to another state title match.
NEWTON-CONOVER 3
PATTON 2
Newton-Conover (26-0-2 West top seed), riding an 11-match win streak, meets First Flight (21-1-0, No. 2 East seed) on Saturday at N.C. State for the championship.
First Flight advanced Tuesday by beating East top seed East Duplin on the road 1-0.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) has set Saturday’s title match — a rematch of a 2014 state 2A final won by Newton-Conover 2-0 — for 2:05 p.m.
The Red Devils’ other state 2A title came in 2007 when they defeated Cardinal Gibbons 1-0.
The big play on Tuesday night that sent head coach Angelo Palozzi”s team to Raleigh came with 20 minutes to play, a long crossing pass from Dilan Esperilla to Francisco Tapia that Tapia then put in the back of the net. It was the 123rd goal of the season for Newton-Conover, which has outscored opponents 123-31.
Patton (24-2-0, West No. 2 seed) put pressure on Newton-Conover from the get-go, scoring a minute into the match on a play by Luis Banales.
About 90 seconds later, the Red Devils’ Aldayr Ozerna scored, tying it at 1, and it stayed that way until 28:25 of the first half when Newton-Conover’s Jason Mejia scored on a header.
Down 2-1, the Panthers tied it at 2 with 27:20 to play when Genaro Rameriz scored on a free kick.
With 20 minutes to play, Newton-Conover inbounded the ball to Esperilla, who made a long pass into the box that Tapia scored off.
Tapia, a senior, scored one of the Red Devils’ two goals in the 2014 state 2A title match against First Flight (Greyson Frey scored the other).
He and his Red Devils teammates go back to Raleigh on a red-hot roll. They went 14-0 to win a South Fork 2A title and started the season 4-0.
After a 1-1 tie with Carrboro, Newton-Conover won 11 straight matches before a 3-all non-conference title with Statesville at home early in October.
After that the Red Devils kept winning, picking up their 11th straight on Tuesday night.
Newton-Conover reached the fourth round each of the two previous seasons, falling last year 2-1 at home to Lake Norman Charter and fell to Trinity 2-1 two seasons ago.
Patton, coached by Keith Scott, started it season 4-0 before losing Aug. 30 at West Henderson, 4-2, and rolled to an unbeaten 12-0-0 record in the Northwestern Foothills 2A to win a league title (second place Hibriten went 8-3-1).
The Panthers outscored opponents 111-24 this season.