Defense stars as Daniel wins third straight boys soccer Class AAA state title — at 1 a.m.
COLUMBIA — D.W. Daniel’s defense held on for so long in the Class AAA high school boys soccer state championship that by the end, it felt like the next day.
Actually, it was the next day.
Daniel scored in the first minute of a game that began at 11:31 p.m. ET Friday because of weather delays and overtimes in the earlier finals. The Lions made it hold up until time finally ran out at 1:14 a.m. — they beat Waccamaw 1-0 at Memorial Stadium for their third consecutive title.
“These boys have a history of making state finals over and over,” Daniel coach Thomas Izaguirre said. “They know what it takes.”
On this night and morning, it took remarkable defense for 79 minutes after Isaac Turner scored a breakaway goal just moments after the opening whistle.
“I was thinking about how much was on the clock almost the whole time I was on the field, especially in those last five minutes,” Turner said. “We had to get everything out and make sure they weren’t getting close and scoring. We held them out all the way to the end.”
“We defended like crazy,” Daniel’s Eddie Merck said. “Our identity is defending, and we did a great job tonight. It was a long game. I think I looked at the clock at least 20 times.”
Hunter Williams, one Daniel's defensive stars, suffered a leg cramp during the postgame celebration and dropped to the ground in pain.
“I jumped up into my teammate’s arms and I like flexed my calf and it did not go down,” he said. “I think I had just enough to get through the game.”
“Every time I asked him to kill the play, he was there,” Izaguirre said of Williams. “He either got the ball or he killed the play. That’s exactly what we asked of him.”
Daniel (19-6), which needed overtime to beat Powdersville in the Upper State championship, is 59-15 during its three-year run and hasn’t lost a game in its region since 2019.
Waccamaw (22-7) had scored 18 goals in its previous four games but was shut out for just the second time this season.
Powdersville girls soccer falls in AAA state final
Powdersville’s third trip to the Class AAA girls soccer state championship game in the past six years came up just short of the program’s first title.
The Patriots held defending champ Waccamaw scoreless in the first half but a pair of goals by Lindsay Latimer gave the Warriors a 2-0 victory. Her second goal was a backbreaker with about 15 minutes left.
Powdersville (18-6-1) had won nine straight games, including 2-0 against Daniel in the Upper State championship.
“We just keep knocking on the door,” Patriots coach Colin Melton said. “I think this was the best we’ve felt going into the game. We felt good about our chances. We knew Waccamaw would be tough, but it wouldn’t be state if it wasn’t tough.”
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Todd Shanesy is longtime sports writer who covers high school athletics for the Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal and Anderson Independent Mail in the USA TODAY Network. Contact him by email at todd.shanesy@shj.com. Follow him on X, formerly called Twitter, at @ToddShanesySHJ.
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: SCHSL boys soccer 3A state championship: Daniel wins third straight
