By Eric Lusk
Sports Editor
elusk@elkintribune.com

SHELBY — In 2007 and 2008, Surry Central’s soccer team experienced extreme heartbreak in the opening round of the state playoffs, losing a pair of 1-0 games in double overtime. Both goals were scored in the 95th minute.

The Golden Eagles got through the first round this year, and the second, third and fourth. But heartbreak returned again in the 2A West championship contest Wednesday night at Shelby.

Surry Central was ousted 2-1 in a game that not only went to to double overtime, but then to sudden death overtime, then to penalty kicks and ultimately to sudden death penalty kicks.

With the score tied 4-4 in PK goals, Shelby’s Ben McMurray converted his team’s sixth attempt, then Lions keeper Rob Binion made a diving stop of Surry Central’s final shot. As a result, Shelby moves on to Saturday’s 2A state championship game, while the Golden Eagles’ drive for its first soccer state title in school history comes up just short.

Central concludes the season 23-3. Shelby (21-3-1) will play either Swansboro or Northwood for the title at 6 p.m. in Cary.

“I feel like we’re cursed,” Surry Central coach Blake Roth said, semi-jokingly. “We’ve made it to the state semifinals three times in 10 years as a program and can’t get by it. You don’t get much closer than sudden death PKs.”

Neither team could score through 80 minutes of regulation. Shelby took a defensive posture and was able to contain Surry Central’s fleet of speedy forwards and midfielders. Binion turned away any shots the Eagles were able to manage to place on frame.

“They didn’t have a standout scorer but their defense was able to contain our standout scorers for the most part,” Roth said. “I kind of feel like we played their style of game. They play more of a boot ball style. They were able to possess the ball at times, but it was pretty much attack, counter-attack, attack, counter-attack.”

In N.C. high school soccer, playoff games still tied after 80 minutes advance to a pair of non-sudden death 10-minute overtime periods. Neither team scored in the first OT, but Surry Central finally broke the ice with 7:30 to play in the second. Edwin Alonso ripped a left-footed shot from the left side, finding the right corner of the goal for a 1-0 advantage.

But the lead would be short-lived. Shelby struck back — in the 95th minute of the match, ironically — when Mason McCarter scored on a header.

“They made a long throw-in and one of their boys was able to get just enough of a scalp on it to flick it,” Roth said. “And that sent us into sudden death.”

Neither team could crack the other’s defense in the third 10-minute extra period, pushing the contest to penalty kicks.

Surry Central has never had a game go to PKs before Wednesday, Roth said. But the team does practice taking PK shots often.

“We were trying to keep it light before the PKs, and Matt (Richardson, assistant coach) kept saying to them, ‘Hey you love taking PKs in practice. You love one-upping each other. This is what you are doing it for.’”

Both teams made their first shot, then missed the second. When each team was able to place its third, fourth and fifth shots past the keeper, the contest went to sudden death PKs tied 4-4. Bernardo Leandro, Ed Lira, Antonio Talavera and Joel Gonzalez made shots for Central.

Roth said his sixth kicker, Raul Valladares, placed a great shot just inside the goal post on the right side, only a few inches off the ground. But Shelby’s Binion, an athletic 6-foot-3 keeper, got enough of a mitt on the ball to block it from going in. “It just wasn’t our night. It wasn’t meant to be,” Roth said.

Binion made several stellar stops during regulation to keep things scoreless. The Golden Eagles had been averaging 4.7 goals per game this season, outscoring foes 120-18 before Wednesday night.

“We were going up against one of the top three goalies in the state,” Roth said. “He kept them in the game the entire night. We had plenty of opportunities where it was pretty much us vs. him, where he came out and got just enough of it with his hand or foot to deny us. Truthfully, I didn’t want to go to PKs against him. I respected his skills.”

Despite the agonizing way Wednesday’s game turned out for the Eagles, 2009 will go down as one of the best — if not the best — season in Surry Central soccer history.

The Golden Eagles blazed through the conference schedule unbeaten, then won four playoff games by a combined margin of 14-1.

No Surry Central team had ever won four playoff contests in the same year before this one. The two years the Eagles made the 1A semifinals (2002 and 2004), they only had to win three games to get there.

Wednesday’s loss could be a huge motivating factor for the team over the next nine months as it tries to get over the hump and into the state title game in 2010.

“It’s going to hurt. It’s going to sting,” Roth said. “But it’s going to be another one of those builders for us ... We’re junior-laden. I plan on working with these kids day-in and day-out until August.

“It’s Raleigh or bust next year.”