Wojnovich sends Carrboro past Forbush in 2A State Championship
By: Evan Moesta
Carrboro High School took home their second straight 2A Women’s Soccer State Championship with a 1-0 overtime victory over Forbush High School. Freshman Alexa Wojnovich sent the Jaguar faithful home happy with her 36th goal of the season on a corner kick in the first overtime at North Carolina State University’s Dail Soccer Park.
As she had done all game long, Calyn Davis stood tall between pipes for Forbush. With the shots favoring Carrboro 10-1 in regulation, the Falcon goalkeeper was tested again right from the start of the extra time. A minute, and fifteen seconds into the first overtime, Elizabeth Cato served a corner kick off the crossbar. Then thirty seconds later, Natasha Turner tapped ball on goal that Davis scooped for a stop.
With just over three minutes remaining in the first overtime, the ice was finally broken as Carrboro’s eleventh shot of the game was a charm. Elizabeth Cato served a corner kick from the right of the Forbush cage. Natasha Turner was able to establish position in the box, and she headed the ball into traffic. On a deflection, it was fitting that the ball found of the foot of Alexa Wojnovich, who chipped a shot top shelf from just a five feet out for the score. Wojnovich’s goal gave Carrboro a 1-0 lead, and it was a teamleading 36th of the season for the freshman.
1-0 was the score heading into the second overtime. Neither team was able to control significant possession in the first three minutes of the frame, but Forbush worked for a golden opportunity with just under six to play. From midfield, Nancy Rios found a hole in the Carrboro defense and sprung a sprinting Macey York down the sideline. Just as the sophomore York was preparing to send a shot towards the goal, Carrboro’s Gabby Adams darted in, and slid to clear the ball away. After Adams’ big stop, Carrboro controlled possession in the midfield, and let the final minutes of the game clock wind down for the victory.
In a rematch of last year’s championship game, it was the reigning champions who struck first with early momentum. Carrboro’s Wojnovich helped maintain possession in the Forbush end for a significant chunk of the opening ten. In the fourth minute she was able to make her way into the box for an opportunity that would be broken up by Paige Keaton. Five minutes later, the freshman Wojnovich chipped a shot over the head of the Falcon keeper Calyn Davis, but it would roll wide left. In the twelfth minute, Davis would make her only save of the half when a Miah Araba throwin towards the left post was tapped on net by Wojnovich, and caught by Davis.
After an Abby Emmett fifteenth minute free kick that sailed well over the Forbush cage, the Falcons started to establish offensive pressure of their own. Madison York raced into the Jaguar box and tapped a loose ball towards the frame that would be scooped and cleared by Carrboro’s Grace Nanney.
Almost a quarter of the half would pass before either team would generate another scoring opportunity. With under ten minutes to play in the stanza, Madisun Shore made some noise for Forbush. She nearly had a chance when Nanney narrowly beat her to a ball in the box, then it was Shore who would almost make her way past Elizabeth Cato for a shot on goal, but the junior Carrboro defender was there to get a foot on the ball for a clear.
Cato’s clear found the head of a Forbush midfielder, and the Falcons were on the attack once more with five minutes approaching on the scoreboard at NC State’s Dail Soccer Park. It would take a sliding effort from Carrboro’s Gabby Adams to deny a onetimed shot by Marley Martin on a pass from Madison York.
In the 37th minute, Carrboro would get their best chance in over twenty minutes of play when they were able to work a ball into a scrum atop the box. Paige Keaton, who made three defensive stops in the first half would head the ball out of danger to send the two teams to the locker rooms all knotted up at 00.
The representatives from the East started the second half with even more offensive pressure than they had established in the opening moments of the first half. Once more, Alexa Wojnovich was right in the middle of it all. Wojnovich had two chances in a twenty second stretch in the opening three minutes of the second half. Her finest turned out to be a highlight reel play for Forbush keeper Calyn Davis who leapt high in the air to catch a onetimed shot from Wojnovich
on a cross from Katie Knotek. Off the clear, Wojnovich got possession back and fired a into the mitts of Davis for her fourth shot of the contest.
Knotek hooked up with another one of her teammates in Evie Joesph on a 46th minute corner kick from Elizabeth Cato. Joesph managed to untangle the ball from her feet, and spin to get off a shot, but the ball would roll wide left of the net. In the 50th, Calyn Davis was tested again between the pipes for Forbush and she rose to the occasion once more with a leaping catch on a kick from the foot of sophomore Lauren Gilliam.
After Grace Nanney broke up a Marley Martin chance for the Falcons, Carrboro responded with another second half opportunity. From thirty yards out in the 65th minute, Alexa Wojnovich uncorked a shot upper right on the cage that Davis would range over to grab. With under ten minutes left, Elizabeth Cato headed a Miah Araba corner over the Forbush crossbar, then the Jaguar duo reversed roles as Araba sent a Cato kick towards the frame that was batted down by Calyn Davis. That stop would send the teams into overtime for a second straight year.
With the win, Carrboro finishes the season 2112, and they clinch their second straight 2A Women’s Soccer State Championship. The Jaguars have now won three Women’s Soccer state championships (2012, 2015, 2016) in four appearances. Alexa Wojnovich was named the Most Valuable Player of the Game after unleashing five shots on goal, including the game winning goal with 3:21 left in the first overtime.
