Wheatmore’s Kara Comer, right, heads the ball over East Davidson’s Carson Suggs during a game in the Class 2-A state playoffs earlier this spring in Trinity. Wheatmore won the second-round game 5-1. (PJ Ward-Brown/North State Journal)
TRINITY – Wheatmore owns a state record in girls’ soccer.
Now it’s a matter of seeing if the Warriors can add a state championship to that.
It took overtime in Tuesday night’s regional final, with a 4-3 victory at Wilkes Central to keep the season alive.
In the fourth round of the Class 2-A state playoffs, Wheatmore scored three goals to set the record for goals in a season with 187.
That came in the West Region semifinal by taking down third-seeded Community School of Davidson in a 3-2 result last Thursday night.
All those results put the Warriors (24-0) in the state final, which will be played against Clinton on Friday night at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary.
Wheatmore, which now has 191 goals, will be in the state final for the first time. Wilkes Central was the runner-up in Class 1-A/2-A in 2006 in the final year before the North Carolina High School Athletic Association went to four classifications for girls’ soccer.
The state’s team record for goals in a season had been held by East Forsyth’s 1988 team with 185.
Ellie Garrison has 76 goals for Wheatmore, with freshman Natalie Bowman at 38 and junior Summer Bowman at 34. Senior Kara Comer is the Warriors’ assist leader with 33.
Garrison’s total is the most in state history in a sophomore season, 12 more than Aycock’s Cheynnne Warrick in 2011.
Garrison ranks in the top five nationally in goals for this school year.
Knocking off Community School of Davidson (17-7) was notable because the Spartans were the 2021 Class 1-A state champions. Community School of Davidson was the first opponent to score more than one goal against Wheatmore this year.
Wheatmore won in the third round earlier last week with a 6-1 home romp past seventh-seeded Hendersonville.
Garrison and Comer both had two goals and Summer Bowman and Natalie Bowman had the other goals. Comer and Natalie Bowman had two assists apiece.
- In Class 3-A, No. 12 seed Asheboro’s season ended with a 3-0 third-round defeat at fourth-seeded East Lincoln. The Blue Comets finished with a 17-5-2 record.
- In Class 1-A, seventh-seeded Uwharrie Charter Academy’s season closed with a 4-1 third-round road loss to second-seeded Bishop McGuinness in Kernersville. UCA posted a 9-7-1 record.
