“Don’t get out worked”: the slogan the Chapel Hill High School men’s soccer team adopted during their season held true as the boys went on to win the state championship for the first time since 1983, beating A.C. Reynolds 2-0 in the 3A championship.
The Tigers entered the state tournament as the fifth seed in the East, and after five straight wins in the playoffs, the boys made it to the state championship.
After an opening round win against West Johnson, the Tigers hosted Asheboro, a team whom they had lost to 5-0 earlier in the season. This time, though, Chapel Hill prevailed in a 1-0 win.
The Tigers continued to gain momentum as they defeated Cleveland, closing out their first of three road wins during the playoffs. The third round win set up a matchup with the best 3A team in the state, Jacksonville. Behind two goals from junior Ryan Smith, the team won and Chapel Hill’s championship run continued.
After starting with 64 teams, only four remained. Chapel Hill was set to take on number three seed, Lee County, in the regional final.
After going down 2-0, the Tigers clawed back to tie the game, forcing overtime. Smith answered the call again with a game-winning goal, lifting Chapel Hill to its second straight state final, where it would face A.C. Reynolds.
The teams were tied at halftime of the state title game 0-0. “We were here last year. We’ve been in this situation where we’ve been scoreless, or tied or losing at the same point, and they were ready. With this team, we really didn’t have to say a whole lot [at halftime],” head coach Jason Curtis said. “It’s just a really special group.”
The Tigers responded in the second half when senior Justin Mecham scored the first goal off an assist from Smith in the 62nd minute. Then, in the 78th minute, Chapel Hill struck again when Smith scored a goal off an assist from Mecham, making the score 2-0 and securing the win for the Tigers.
“We lost so many seniors this past year, so it was a completely different starting team at the beginning of the season. As the season progressed, so did our work ethic,” Mecham said. “We even created a team motto that we would say every game to make sure everyone was working their hardest, and, in the end, I think that and our team chemistry was why we were able to win states this year.”
Smith, who was named Most Valuable Player of the game, agreed with his teammates that, while the team struggled at the start of the season, they stepped up their game during the end of the season and into playoffs.
“Our biggest struggle was figuring out how to play out of the back, and we overcame that by practicing different ways in doing so and perfecting them throughout the playoffs,” Smith said.
The Tigers are no strangers to the state championship. The team took the title in 1972, 1974 and 1983, and finished as runner-up in four state championship games since 1976, including last year in 2016.
Curtis has been named the 2017 Mid Atlantic Region, Large Public School, High School Boys Coach of the Year.
