‘It’s a big deal’: How Cape Fear girls soccer ended its playoff drought
Jayda Angel and Dylan Sneed weren’t aware of the history that has followed the Cape Fear girls soccer program.
For more than 20 years, the Colts haven't won a playoff match. Angel and Sneed knew it had been awhile, but they were focused on making their own history Monday.
With a 5-0 win against Northern Nash in the first round of the NCHSAA playoffs, Cape Fear was able to do just that with a state tournament victory for the first time in a long time.
“I did not know, but I know it was a long time since we came to the playoffs and won,” Angel, who had a hat trick, said with a smile.
“It’s a big deal.”
Angel scored three goals for a hat trick in the game
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK VOTING: Baseball standout, hurdle champion, softball stars among 910Preps Athlete of the Week nominees
PLAYOFF PLAYERS: 11 Fayetteville area high school girls soccer players to watch during NCHSAA playoffs
SPRING OVERVIEW: High school sports: Complete coverage of the 2022 spring sports seasons
Sneed, a senior captain who scored a goal and played all 80 minutes in Monday’s match, was more focused on helping Cape Fear forget about its 8-0 loss at Cleveland in the 2021 playoffs.
“We had to do everything in our power to win because last year we had a pretty rough start in the first round,” Sneed said. “We knew we just didn’t want to end like that again.”
Now, under first-year coach Bryan Pagan, the Colts (14-3-2) are conference champions for the second year in a row and are set to host a second-round playoff game against Orange on Wednesday.
In the shortened 2021 season, interim coach Rico Mitchell led Cape Fear to its first league title in program history before Pagan took the head gig.
But even Pagan, who came to the Colts after spending 14 years at Gray’s Creek, wasn’t sure about the magnitude of Monday’s win.
“I don’t know a whole lot about wins for Cape Fear girls soccer in the playoffs, so it’s good for us to kind of get the nerves out and start playing,” said Pagan, who led the Gray’s Creek boys’ program to a sweep of the league titles in 2019.
“It’s great for the girls. I don’t think they know that there’s history with this. But I think we’ve had a really good season and I think when we play our game, and we’re focused, we’re really tough to beat.”
Cape Fear, which didn’t lose a league match this season and has its most wins since 2014, looked like a postseason stalwart early on against Northern Nash (13-10-2).
Four minutes into the match, sophomore Andi Brinkner scored the first goal from just outside of the box.
Angel added two more goals to help the Colts carry a 3-0 lead into halftime. Three minutes into the second half, she netted her third to complete the hat trick.
“As soon as we had our new players come on, and with the freshmen, we knew that we had a mark and our goal was to win a playoff game,” said Angel, who earlier this year led the Cape Fear girls basketball team to its first playoff appearance in 30-plus years.
“We came out here working hard every day. … Everything mattered ... and it really showed off in this game (Monday).”
Angel exited the match with 21 minutes left before Sneed added the final goal of the night to put an exclamation point on the playoff opener.
“It’s definitely a good way to go out of high school – winning two conference (titles) back to back and making it past the first round in (the state playoffs),” Sneed said.
“I’m so happy that I get to go out this way.”
Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: N.C. high school soccer: Cape Fear wins 2nd straight conference title
