Spencer Venator picked up the win, pitching a complete game for the Huskies, who now have 22 wins and 10 losses. He gave up six hits, one walk and had a strikeout. After giving up a run in the first inning, Venator settled in for six innings of shut out pitching.

East Forsyth (20-8) scored in the first inning when Caleb Edwards scored from third base on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Watts.

After falling behind by a run, Hough came back in the top of the fourth with what turned out to be the winning runs. Johnny Piedmont walked, then Suttles stepped to the plate and hit a fastball on a line drive over the left field fence to make it 2-1.

The Huskies avoided giving up another run in the bottom of the sixth with some good defense. When second-baseman Jarod Sobo’s throw to first went wide, first-baseman Piedmont made a diving catch to keeping an Eagles’ runner on third from scoring. East Forsyth’s next batter grounded out, stranding the runner at third and keeping the score 2-1.

In the final inning, Venator started with a strikeout. Then the Eagles hit two easy ground balls for outs that ended the game.

GAME FRIDAY AT HOUGH

Hough plays East Forsyth in what could be an elimination game Friday at 7 p.m. at Hough, 12420 Bailey Road, Cornelius. A victory would put the Huskies into the the 4A State Championship series. If needed, game 3 would be Saturday at 6 p.m. at East Forsyth.

- Reported by Bill Shapcott

RELATED LINKS

May 25, 2012, JournalNow.com (Winston-Salem), “East Forsyth on verge of elimination”

David Smith

By DENNY SEITZ
DavidsonNews.net

CORNELIUS – When David Smith interviewed to be the soccer coach at Hough High two years ago, his vision included a group of close-knit, talented athletes with parents who supported their kids and their school.

He envisioned a place where hearts and championships could be won.

“Being part of a community … being part of a group … with the three small towns we have up here … this is what I’d hoped for,” Smith said after the Huskies defeated Providence, 3-1, in the state 4A semifinal Wednesday.

“I’ve been coaching for 20 years, and this situation is what I’d always hoped for.”

The Huskies got goals from Sarah Moon, Morgan Byrne and Hannah Robinson, and another stellar performance from goalkeeper Marnie Merritt to improve to 25-0-1 on the season.

Wednesday’s win was the team’s 24th straight victory and sets up a dream match-up between Hough and Green Hope (of Cary) that pits not only the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in North Carolina but the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the entire country, as voted by ESPN in its recently-released Fab 50 poll.

“I’m not sure that’s happened before,” said Robinson, whose 16th goal of the season – a header that caromed off the post and past the Providence goalkeeper – gave the Huskies a 3-0 lead with five minutes left in the game, all but clinching the second-year school’s first trip to the state finals.

Smith was ecstatic after the game, not just because of the victory but because of the perfect storm of successes that were celebrated at Hough on Wednesday. At halftime of his soccer game, members of the Huskies swim team were introduced and recognized as the school’s first team state champions. Midway through the second half, the bus carrying the school’s baseball team pulled into the parking lot after an upset victory earlier Wednesday night helped them advance to the N.C. 4A baseball state semifinals.

Then, his team continued its winning ways, setting up Saturday’s 11 a.m. winner-take-all showdown against Green Hope, which is 26-0.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Merritt, a sophomore who may have been considered the one question mark on the Huskies team this season after replacing all-state performer Emily Rusk. Smith says there isn’t a better goalkeeper in the state.

Meanwhile, five Huskies seniors were sophomores at North Mecklenburg High two years ago when the Vikings won the state championship: Robinson, Allison Vest, twin sisters Lindsey and Morgan Byrne and Alison Stearns.

“Our sophomore year, we felt like that was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing,” Robinson said. “But now we’re back.”

Stearns assisted on the final two goals on Wednesday.

Providence’s lone goal came on a penalty kick with just over a minute left in the game by Tanner Murphy.

“This win means so much for us,” Robinson said. “We are just really, really excited right now. This has been our goal since the beginning of the year.”

Do you find value in DavidsonNews.net’s coverage. Please consider becoming a paying subscriber. It’s voluntary but we rely on your support to keep the news flowing. Details: http://davidsonnews.net/support-us/

East Forsyth (20-7) beat Mt. Tabor to advance.

Hough meets East Forsyth High Thursday at 7 p.m. Game two will be Friday at Hough (time TBA), and if needed, game three would be Saturday at East Forsyth.

In Wednesday’s victory, Gragilla had five strikeouts and gave up nine hits and two runs. Hough batters had six hits and four walks.

Mallard Creek struck quickly in the first inning after lead-off hitter Aaron Harbison tripled. He scored on a single by Kyle Bynum to make it 1-0.

Hough came back to tie in the second inning when AJ Girting walked, moved to second with Nick Daddio’s single and scored on and Eric Silers’ single.

In the third inning, Jared Sobo’s led off with a walk, then moved to second on Jacob Buchanan’s sacrifice bunt. Johnny Piedmont’s sacrifice fly brought Sobo home, to make it 2-1. Girting also scored another run when Nick Daddio doubled, giving the Huskies at 3-1 lead.

Mallard Creek answered in the bottom of the third, to make it 3-2.

Hough added an insurance run in the fourth inning. Eric Silers reached base on an error, moved to second on Andrew Altimira’s sacrifice bunt, then reached third when Sobo singled. Siler scored easily from third when Buchanan hit to the right side.

The Huskies led 4-2 going into the final inning, and held off a last-minute challenge. Mallard Creek put two runners on base, then Eric Siler came to the plate with two out. He hit a ground ball to 1t base, which Piedmont fielded easily to end the game.

- Thanks to Bill Shapcott for the game summary.

SOCCER WEDNESDAY

The No. 1 seeded soccer team will play its semifinal against Providence at home at 7 p.m. in the stadium at Hough, 12420 Bailey Road, Cornelius. Hough beat arch-rival Lake Norman on Friday night, 2-0, to move on. The Huskies now stand at 24-0-1 on the year.

Providence, which has the No. 2 seed in the 4A tourney, advanced with a 1-0 win over Southwestern Conference foe Ardrey Kell on Saturday. Providence is now 18-4-1 on the year.

Download the latest soccer tournament bracket (PDF) on the NCHSAA website.

BASEBALL ADVANCES

Hough’s baseball team advanced to the next round in action Friday night at South Caldwell. The Huskies edged S. Caldwell, 3-2. The baseball team is now 20-10 on the year. They’ll face Mallard Creek on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Charlotte. Mallard Creek High School is at 3825 Johnson Oehler Road in Charlotte. Download the latest baseball tournament bracket (PDF) on the NCHSAA website.

SOFTBALL FALLS TO ALEXANDER CENTRAL

The Huskies softball team ended its season at 19-5 Friday night with an 11-0 loss to Alexander Central. Alexander now moves on to host Porter Ridge Tuesday in the next round. Download the latest softball tournament bracket (PDF) on the NCHSAA website.

Winner Jason Huber nears the finish. (Bill Giduz/DavidsonNews.net)

Fifteen-year-old Jason Huber of Huntersville won the Davidson-Cornelius Child Development Center 5K run in downtown Davidson. He clocked 18:10, four seconds ahead of Robert Mayo, 23, of Charlotte. In third place overall was Malia Ellington of Cornelius, the top woman finisher, in 18:45.

A total of 124 people finished the race, which was part of this year’s Presbyterian Sports Medicine Running for Our Communities Series.

The race was a fund raiser for the nonprofit Davidson Cornelius Child Development Center, on Gamble Street in Davidson.

TOP 20 FINISHERS
Davidson Cornelius Child Development Center 5K
May 19, 2012

1 462 Jason Huber 0:18:10 05:52 15 M Huntersville
2 478 Robert Mayo 0:18:14 05:53 23 M Charlotte
3 449 Malia Ellington 0:18:45 06:03 15 F Cornelius
4 459 Martin Harrison 0:18:52 06:05 50 M Davidson
5 54 David Piper 0:19:33 06:18 53 M Houston
6 14 Charles Willimon 0:19:56 06:26 31 M Cornelius
7 24 Greg Galloway 0:20:09 06:30 46 M Huntersville
8 44 Brandon Ellington 0:20:14 06:32 11 M Cornelius
9 25 Dexter Cherry 0:20:22 06:34 44 M Huntersville
10 10 Glenn Tingen 0:20:29 06:36 36 M Concord
11 57 Claire Naisby 0:20:41 06:40 21 F Davidson
12 32 Zak Anderson 0:21:02 06:47 M Davidson
13 468 Dean King 0:21:17 06:52 44 M Cornelius
14 46 kevin Jarzmik 0:21:26 06:55 27 M Davidson
15 43 Andrew Metzler 0:21:33 06:57 28 M Huntersville
16 498 Jake Ryan 0:21:42 07:00 13 M Huntersville
17 38 Todd Spears 0:21:58 07:05 44 M Concord
18 473 Brendan Lynch 0:22:11 07:09 14 M Davidson
19 41 Betsey Stewart 0:22:12 07:10 40 F
20 454 Rodney Graham 0:22:13 07:10 48 M Davidson

See the full results at DavidsonTiming.com.

SUMMIT SOLSTICE RACE JUNE 15

Summit Coffee Co. will host the Summit Solstice Race + Festival on Friday, June 15, at 7 p.m. starting from the shop in downtown Davidson.

The four-mile run on Davidson streets and greenways will raise money for Our Towns Habitat, the area chapter of Habitat for Humanity. This marks the second of four events in the 2012 Summit Twilight Racing Series, a collection of evening runs benefiting various local and national charitable organizations.

Charlotte-based band Cast Iron Filter, which toured the country playing Irongrass (bluegrass meets rock ‘n roll) for five years before taking a hiatus in 2005, will reunite to provide the entertainment at the post-race festival at Summit Coffee. Cast Iron Filter includes lead singer/songwriter Dustin Edge, mandolin player Michael Orlando, bassist Mason Bisset and drummer Tim Helfrich.

New Belgium Brewing Co. and New Balance return as sponsors of the Summit Twilight Racing Series after a successful first event on March 17. The Leprechaun Loop 5-mile run, benefiting Levine Children’s Hospital, drew more than 260 runners and more than 400 people to the post-race festival, featuring beers from New Belgium and music from The New Familiars.

Registration for the June 15 Summit Solstice Race is now open online at Queen City Timing and in-store at Summit Coffee, located at 128 S. Main Street, Davidson.

A group of young runners finishes the Davidson Cornelius Day Care 5K Saturday. (Bill Giduz/DavidsonNews.net)

Lindsay Byrne (DavidsonNews.net file photo)

By DENNY SEITZ
DavidsonNews.net

CORNELIUS – The W.A. Hough High girls soccer team moved a step closer to a state championship on Friday, surviving a grudge match with I-MECK rivals Lake Norman to advance to the state 4A semifinals for the second straight season.

Lindsay Byrne scored just 22 seconds into the tightly-contested game, then assisted on a Hannah Robinson goal with 4:30 left in the game to help the Huskies win their 22nd straight, improving to 23-0-1 overall.

Lake Norman ends its season with a record of 22-3, all three losses coming at the hands of the Huskies.

“They were 22-0 against everybody else in the state,” Hough coach David Smith said. “To beat a team like that three times in one season …”

Smith let his words hang in the air.

Of all the Huskies’ games this year, this third meeting of the season with the Wildcats just might have been the toughest. The teams never had any kind of emotional letdown, battling throughout the high-intensity affair. The outcome clearly could have been different, and both coaches knew it.

In fact, the coaches – Lake Norman’s Jon Mertes and Hough’s Smith – spent the minutes immediately after the game praising and encouraging their opponents, even before addressing their own players.

“You guys are the best team in the state,” Mertes told the Hough players, who had circled around him. “You play together as a unit. You work hard.”

The unique nature of the praise wasn’t lost on Smith, who told his players so much in his own post-game address.

“That’s what others see and think of you, what he just said,” Smith told his team. “I could not be more proud.”

The difference on Friday night might have been the play of sophomore goalkeeper Marnie Merritt, who made a half-dozen tough saves on close-in shots, including three in a five-minute span midway through the second half that kept the score 1-0 in favor of Hough. Smith called Merritt the best goalkeeper in the state and said even the loss of goalkeeper Emily Rusk, the 2011 I-MECK Player of the Year, hasn’t affected the team the way many thought it might.

“We had Emily last year,” Smith said, “and we haven’t dropped off one bit this season,” he said.

Said Lindsay Byrne: “Marnie Merritt saves our (butt) every game.”

Meanwhile, Byrne, who along with her sister Morgan, and teammate Alison Stearns are all headed to UNC Wilmington next season on soccer scholarships, spearheaded the team’s offensive charge on Friday.

Smith told his team it was important to start fast, but none of his players thought he was looking for a goal in the game’s first 22 seconds. But that’s precisely what he got: A lobbed ball, a perfectly placed shot over the head of the Lake Norman goalkeeper, a score on a shot Byrne said she wasn’t exactly planning.

“I hit it with my left foot,” she said, “and thought it was way high.”

The goal was all Merritt would need, but her teammates added an insurance goal at the end to seal the deal. The final goal started with a direct kick by Byrne from 35 yards out that was right at the Lake Norman keeper. When the ball caromed off her hands, Robinson was there amidst the scramble for the ball and one-timed it into the back of the net with 4:30 left, all but securing the victory and sending the Huskies to the semifinals.

That semifinal will be played next Tuesday or Wednesday against the winner of Saturday’s Ardrey Kell-Providence game. The Huskies have already beaten each team this season.

“Last year we made it to the semifinals,” Byrne said. “Our goal this year was to go further.”

DOWNLOAD the Division 4A playoff bracket at NCHSAA.org.

Your voluntary subscription payment today can help pay for more stories like this one! Please consider it!

The win raised the Huskies’ record to 19-4 and sent them into a matchup Friday against Alexander Central. The time and location had not been determined as of Wednesday night.

Alexander Central easily beat McDowell, 6-0, on Tuesday.

Here’s the NCHSAA 4A softball bracket (PDF)

Hough’s first run came in the bottom of the fourth when the Huskies took advantage of a Mooresville error. Johnny Piedmont was hit by a pitch, stole second and then scored when Mooresville’s first baseman bobbled a ball hit by AJ Girting.

The Huskies scored again later in the inning on another error, this time when Mooresville relief pitcher Ryan Brennan threw wild when trying to pick off Girting on first base. That let Girting run to third pace, and he scored on a wild pitch/ball four to Nick Daddio.

Mooresville answered in the top of the fifth inning with its lone run by loading the bases. Hough pitcher Derek Fuller helped turn a double play, but the run scored.

Hough pitcher Brandon Gragilla came in to finishes the game with two scoreless innings.

SOUTH CALDWELL FRIDAY

Hough (19-10) plays in the next round this Friday at 7 p.m. at South Caldwell (24-2).

- Thanks to Bill Shapcott for the report