Soccer season ends after series of close losses

Published 10:27 am Tuesday, November 5, 2024

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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Davie’s soccer team finished last for the 11th consecutive year and its CPC losing streak stretched to 30.
That’s not to say nothing encouraging happened this fall. The War Eagles showed improvement, following a 1-20 season in 2023 with a 4-17-2 mark in Russ Fisher’s first year as coach. Their competitiveness against five of seven league opponents gives them hope for 2025 and perhaps beyond. Also, the JV squad earned six victories and was close on several other occasions.
During the 0-14 CPC season, Davie suffered six losses by one or two goals: 2-0 to East Forsyth, 2-0 to Reynolds, 4-3 to Parkland, 2-0 to Mt. Tabor, 2-1 to Parkland and 4-3 at Glenn on Oct. 28, when Max Rappaport, Justin Rayas and Hamza Heikal had goals. Gage Whitaker and Rayas had one assist each.
“We could’ve beaten Parkland both times for sure,” Fisher said. “The game at Glenn was probably our best game of the year. It was back and forth. It was literally who ended up with the ball at the end of the game, and Glenn scored with 56 seconds left. Our game at Parkland was 3-1 (in Davie’s favor) and they scored three goals with four minutes to go. It felt like that’s the way it went all season. It would just fall apart right at the end of the game or we would go to sleep for like five minutes when we were completely in it.”
And then: “No. 1, we did not get a full offseason because I did not come in until July, so we came in a lot less disciplined and a lot less fit than other teams. I think that will be different next year, plus our conference will change next year. It looks like we’re going to be 7-A; we will be one of the biggest 7-A schools.”
Davie’s season ended with a 9-0 home loss to Reynolds on Senior Night on Oct. 30. Fisher had to say goodbye to nine seniors: Felipe Flores, Karson Yount, Rafael Amaro, Abdullah Guver, Alex Torres, Gage Whitaker, Zach Hill, Joseph Molina and Diego Reyes.
The extended drought overshadowed excellent work from the three captains (Flores, Yount and Amaro). Flores is among the finest goalies in Davie history.
“Felipe is almost going to be irreplaceable,” Fisher said. “He had the most saves in the conference and he actually might have the most saves in the state after this game. He had around 250 or 260. Felipe is getting scouted. He has a couple of visits scheduled with colleges, so hopefully he will end up getting signed.
“(Yount) was injured the last four games, but he did get to play tonight (at right back). We really fell apart when Karson got injured. That hurt us a lot because he helped a lot defensively.
“Rafael’s only been at Davie for two years, but he really took the captain’s role seriously and kept the boys in line and kept them in the right mindset – being able to go even after bad losses and stuff like that. Those three guys are really going to be hard to replace next year.”
Notes: The CPC standings: West Forsyth 12-1-1, Reagan 11-2-1, East Forsyth 7-5-1, Mt. Tabor 7-5-2, Reynolds 6-7-1, Parkland 6-8, Glenn 3-10, Davie 0-14. … Rayas scored a team-high eight goals, followed by Whitaker with six and Rappaport with five. Rayas also led in assists with six.