Back-to-back: Resilient Waccamaw girls soccer wins second straight championship
The Waccamaw girls soccer team survived many obstacles in getting back to its second straight championship match, so a little wait wasn’t going to affect them.
The Warriors overcame an almost four-hour delay and defeated Powdersville, 2-0, to win the Class 3A championship at Memorial Stadium on Friday.
It was the second straight title for Waccamaw. The Warriors were dominant going 23-1 to winning last year’s title which coach Mark Sanchez called it a “dream season.”
This year, it was more about survival. Sanchez said he lost four players in March to season-ending injuries, and the team was down to a handful of subs the rest of the season. The Warriors (17-6-1) also played a tough schedule against the likes of James Island, Chapin, Wando, Pinewood Prep and Oceanside Collegiate. All of those teams except Wando are playing for state championships this weekend.
“Two in a row is amazing. We have been working on this for a long time,” Sanchez said. “Last year was our dream season. We had a lot of seniors, but people wrote us off this year. Lot of people were looking at our record, but we go after the big schools, and if we lose we are OK with those losses.
“And it is not how you start, it is how you finish. So, here we are. Back-to-back champions.”
Friday’s match was supposed to start at 5:30 p.m. but didn’t kick off until 9:10 p.m. after a two-hour weather delay and the match before Waccamaw’s went to penalty kicks.
Sanchez said his team stayed loose during the delay, listening to music and acting like normal teenagers.
“They came out focused and I told them it would take a few minutes to get our feet underneath you because of the delay. But whatever you do, don’t concede goals,” he said. “And that is what we did.”
The match was scoreless at halftime. That’s when junior Lindsay Lattimer took over. Lattimer blasted a shot from 20 yards out in the 48th minute to make it 1-0.
Powdersville had a good opportunity to tie it but missed on three attempts in the 63rd minute. Three minutes later, Lattimer scored again to put the Warriors up 2-0. It was Lattimer’s third multi-goal game in the playoffs and she finished the year with 28 on the season.
“At first, it was a little bit shaky and we couldn’t find anything,” Lattimer said. “But once we started finding people, we started making passes and it was everyone working together.”
Powdersville drops to 0-3 in championship appearances. They also played for championships in 2019 and 2022.
Waccamaw boys lose in final
The Waccamaw boys soccer team were unable to make it a sweep of the 3A titles as Daniel used an early goal to defeat the Warriors, 1-0.
The game didn’t kick off until 11:20 p.m. and ended at 1:15 a.m. Saturday morning. South Carolina High School League officials gave both teams’ coaches the opportunity to play the match another day because of the late start time but both teams opted to go ahead and play it.
It was Daniel’s third straight championship and fourth straight title appearance. The Lions are the first 3A program to win three in a row since Riverside won seven in a row from 1989-1995.
The Lions wasted little time to score as Isaac Turner raced down the field and scored in the first minute to make it 1-0.
The Warriors had several chances to tie it, especially in the second half, but couldn’t convert.
Waccamaw was making its first championship appearance in program history. The Warriors made it to 11 state semifinals before finally breaking through to the championship match this season.
