Villagomez, Red Devils beat Bulldogs
Oct. 28—RED SPRINGS — The Red Springs soccer team's seniors played their final regular-season home game when the Red Devils hosted rival St. Pauls Wednesday.
It was fitting that one of those seniors scored bookend goals to start and finish a 5-3 Red Devils win.
Javier Villagomez scored a goal in the first 10 minutes of each half, the first and last of the five Red Springs (9-3-1, 7-2-1 Southeastern Athletic Conference) goals in the match.
"This is my last year, it's like a goodbye to the team," Villagomez said. "I've been waiting for this game all season, trying to beat them because they beat us last year. It meant everything."
The first goal came less than eight minutes into the match, setting the tone for the Red Devils through the rest of the half.
"It's like a Cinderella story, that's how it's supposed to happen," Red Springs coach William Judd said. "We know he's going to come out and he goes to another gear every time we play St. Pauls. I'm glad that just playing them alone is enough motivation to come out here and want to do his thing."
Red Springs' Diego Lazaro scored with 19:44 left in the half; Olvin Diaz then converted on a penalty kick 3:02 before the break for a 3-0 lead. St. Pauls (8-7, 5-5 Southeastern) scored on an Anthony Sosa penalty kick with 1:26 to go in the half.
With a 3-1 score at intermission, both coaches knew the next goal would be crucial in determining the direction of the rest of the match.
"I said we can't let up now, we've got to put the pedal to the medal, especially in the second half," Judd said. "A lot of times the first few minutes teams fall asleep in the second half, and I told them that's the time to attack, let's get our goal to set the momentum to start the end of the game on."
Anthony Jiminez scored that goal three minutes into the half, then Villagomez got his second of the game six minutes later for a 5-1 lead.
Sosa scored for the Bulldogs when he knocked in the deflection of a saved penalty kick with 23:10 remaining; Eric Mejia made it 5-3 with 15:01 to go.
"We gave up cheap goals early; we responded well coming out of half, scoring one or two, but as we chased the game it got away from us," St. Pauls coach Brent Martin said. "We lost the midfield; we weren't winning balls in the midfield, we were losing that whole area. And that allowed them to keep attacking us. I think the better team won, and I have to give credit to the Red Springs boys ... they deserve this moment."
Both teams will qualify for the 2A state playoffs, for which pairings will be released by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Friday. Red Springs has earned an automatic berth after finishing second in the Southeastern Athletic Conference; St. Pauls will earn an at-large bid into the 32-team East Regional as they entered play Wednesday at 14th in the 2A East RPI rankings.
"We talked about this before the season even started," Villagomez said. "This was my goal, and hopefully the team's goal as well. We haven't been (to the playoffs in five years)."
"To carry this momentum into the playoffs is big for us, because we haven't made the playoffs in so many years, and to beat a quality team like St. Pauls, that's a good start to leading into the playoffs, so I'm excited for us," Judd said. "I'm glad they pulled it off."
Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at [email protected] You can follow him on Twitter at @StilesOnSports.
