Leesville Road boys soccer
Daniel Samper was one of 11 seniors to play in his final game during Leesville Road's 3-2 loss to Fuquay-Varina in the first round of the state playoffs Tuesday.
Pride fall in first round to Fuquay-Varina
Ten weeks stood between the Leesville Road soccer team's first meeting with Fuquay-Varina — a 3-1 loss Aug. 20 — and the squads' match-up in the first round of the 4-A state playoffs Tuesday night.
And while the result, a 3-2 loss, might have been similar, Leesville coach Chip Stone argued the competition was anything but.
"Except for the 10 minute when we scored, they really outplayed us the first time," he said. "But this game was a totally different story."
The reason for the stark contrast in games can be traced back to one fact, Stone said: the Pride were much improved now.
"We were dying to play Fuquay again because we knew we had gotten better," the coach said.
The Pride showed their resolve early, allowing a Bengal penalty kick 10 minutes into the game, but answering back less than a minute later.
Senior Bo Burns made a strong push toward the goal, and the Fuquay keeper was left to make a decision, and he choose to trip Burns up.
"He really had no choice but to take Bo down because he was going to score," Stone explained.
Fellow senior Chris Hawthorne stepped in and buried the penalty kick, tying the game 1-1.
Alas, the Bengals went up 3-1 in the second half before Burns tacked on a goal pulling the Pride within one. However, Leesville's last-stitch efforts to tie the game didn't come through.
Stone shrugged off any disappointment, lauding his team's performance into the final minutes.
"Fuquay is a really good team, and to be honest, they have more talent than we do," the coach said. "But we really played hard and played well, we just didn't score. It was one of those things. It was a great game."
The Bengals are ranked 14th in the state, and Stone said Leesville's performance against them proved one thing, "That really tells you that we were one of the better teams in the state."
The coach commended his team's resurgence following a disappointing 1-4 start to the season, and the Pride ended up finishing second in the Cap-7, tied with Sanderson with a 7-4-1 mark.
And at closer look, there's a good reason for Leesville's early struggles. Three of four teams (Apex, Green Hope and Fuquay) are still alive in the playoffs.
"We were competitive in those games, and we really learned a lot from them," Stone said.
The loss marked the final game for 11 Pride seniors, including Wes Atkinson, Kyle Davis, Ryan Fleming, Davis Griffin, Brian Hunter, Graham Mossinghoff, Eric Hguyen, Daniel Samper, Ben Snell, Burns and Hawthorne.
Stone credited the Pride's success to players accepting roles and stepping up, and the coach highlighted the play of Hunter and Samper. The duo's improved play defensively allowed Fleming to play up top, and the switch was pivotal to the Pride's strong conference finish.
"What I liked about this team is they wanted to get better every single week," the coach said. "I was really proud of that."
