Beyond where the eye can see below Memorial Stadium at Walter Williams High School, there’s a creek running underneath.
It extends through the football field, which is also shared by the men’s and women’s soccer teams, and runs all the way west to the baseball stadium.
When someone tosses a rock inside a creek, it can cause a minor ruffle in the water, depending on the current and the size of the stone. Most years, the end of the Orange women’s soccer season barely creates a ripple. Other spring sports at Orange, like baseball and softball, are almost annually in the playoffs and deep playoff runs are common.
Which is precisely why this Orange women’s soccer team will go down in the annals as something special. Late last week, after the Lady Panthers’ stunned Cape Fear 5-2 in Fayetteville to reach the 3rd round of the state playoffs for the first time ever, it grabbed the attention of the school. Motorists along Orange High School Road saw “Go Orange Soccer” spelled out in bright Orange and Black plastic cups at the entrance of the student parking lot. It was still there on Memorial Day, nearly a week after Walter Williams ended Orange’s season.
After the Bulldogs emerged 3-2 with the win at Memorial Stadium last Tuesday, a steady mist fell onto the field as Orange head coach Jacki Mignosa held her postgame huddle in front of the strongest turnout of Panther fans for a road game all season. There were tears among some players that is standard for any team that just had it season end. The damp weather couldn’t dose the fire in the eyes of several starters who watched Williams’ players celebrate. They wanted to secure Orange’s first-ever trip to the state quarterfinals. Just because time ran out didn’t mean their emotions were empty.
There was also the elephant in the room of Orange losing its starting goalkeeper with the game in the balance. Tied 1-1 with 32:03 remaining, Abby Monteith sprinted to the edge of the box for a loose ball, which wound up being blown dead for offside. In the process, Monteith collided with a Williams’ player and a teammate and immediately grabbed her right knee. It forced her from the game. Less than 90 seconds later, Williams’ Olivia Vandre headed in a corner kick for the game-winning goal.
Four minutes later, Williams’ Vanessa Wright sent a long shot into the net from 23 yards to extend the Bulldog’s lead to 3-1.
Despite losing Monteith, Mignosa refused to use her injury as an excuse.
“Their goalkeeper made a ton of good saves,” Mignosa said. “We kept pounding and I’m proud of them for doing that. It’s never just the goalkeeper’s fault. It’s the mistakes made at midfield and then defense. The goalkeeper is just the last person. We talk about that a lot as a team.”
And it showed. Trailing 3-1 with 28:00 remaining, Orange was the aggressor for the balance of the game. Freshman Elliana Sullivan Gaddy scored off a breakaway when she moved in against Williams’ goalkeeper Tahani Villines. Initially, Villines made the save, but Sullivan Gaddy chipped in the rebound with 21:14 remaining.
Senior Bella Brown nearly added the equalizer. Off a long throw-in by Sydney Rogers from midfield, Sullivan Gaddy sent a cross to Brown, who had a shot from the penalty spot. It was also the dampest part of the field, which prevented Brown from getting much steam on it. Villines captured the ball diving to her right.
With 10:00 left, sophomore wingback Channing Mahaney found Sullivan Gaddy on a clearing pass. Sullivan Gaddy had a strong shot from ten yards, but Villines denied her with a diving save.
“I tell them all the time ‘no regrets,'” Mignosa said. “Don’t come off this field with regrets. You gotta play hard. Any substitution I make, I make it to the best of my ability. And there’s no regrets. I don’t like to live that way. I don’t like to think ‘what if?'”
After Williams’ Lila Fleming opened the scoring off an assist from Vandare with 27:44 remaining in the first half, Brown tied the game for Orange. Sullivan Gaddy found Brown, who dribbled into the right edge of the box and fired it in off the hands of Villines.
Orange kept the pressure coming based off the attack of junior Sydney Rogers, whose is the fourth member of her family to play with the Lady Panthers. Her older sister, Jordan, recently graduated after playing four seasons at Division III William Peace University in Raleigh.
“She’s always been a strong player since her freshman year,” Mignosa said. “I was lucky enough to coach her two older sisters. She’ll be amazing her senior year.”
Next February will feel different for Orange women’s soccer. There will be higher expectations. Bella Brown, who was second on the team with ten goals and 27 points, is the only senior with substantial playing time graduating. Sullivan Gaddy, who led the squad with 13 goals and 31 points, will return. So will Rogers, a healthy Monteith, freshman Caroline Cathey (five goals) and rising senior Allison Torkewitz.
“We’ll absolutely miss Bella,” Mignosa said. “But we’re a young team. I told them that after the game. Now we have this expectation and the younger kids are going to have to step it up. Because now I’m expecting us to go even further.”