Spring Creek captures Carolina 1-A conference crown

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on October 23, 2008 1:46 PM

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No bone-chilling, breath-taking Gatorade shower this time.

It was too cold.

Spring Creek head soccer coach Johnny Galarza watched from the sidelines as the Gators finished off their first-ever, undefeated regular-season campaign with a 3-0 victory over Rosewood at Branch Pope Field on Wednesday evening. The Gators (12-0-2 overall) clinched the Class 1-A Carolina Conference title outright and earned the league's No. 1 seed for the N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs.

So, where was the water cooler for the ceremonial dousing?

"I turned around and saw them going for the bucket, but I had to put a stop to that," said Galarza. "I am so proud of this group of players, but it's too cold to get that excited. It's been a lot of fun, all season long.

"These kids take it seriously, but they never get down on each other and they always have fun out there."

Rosewood battled valiantly in the opening half in front of goalie Will Grantham, who had nine saves. He allowed just one goal in the first 40 minutes.

"I thought we gave them a little better effort tonight than we did when we traveled to their place," said Eagles head coach Daniel Mitchell. "The defense played well, but offensively we were always one pass away from creating an opportunity."

In the second half, the Gators found their offensive stride.

Alfonzo Carachure collected a pass from Ricardo Rangel and belted his second goal of the night, which increased the Gators' advantage to 2-0.

With 10 minutes left in the game, Raul Fuentez pushed a shot passed Grantham off of a one-touch assist from Dante Ortiz.

The Gators controlled the last few minutes in the midfield and the celebration began.

"Our guys knew what was at stake tonight and they gave me a great effort," said Galarza. "We had won the conference before, but we had never played through an undefeated season."

Rosewood (2-10-3) concluded league play with a 2-4 mark.

"Our seniors did a good job helping this team get better this season," said Mitchell. "We have so many young players on the field. We have to use every experience from this season and continue to get better before next season."