DURHAM — The Riverside boys’ soccer team lived up to its nickname Thursday night.
Down 3-1 with under four minutes left to play, the Pirates mounted a thrilling comeback to steal a 4-3 win over Southern Durham.
“The theme this whole week, and I told them — I wrote one word on the board — it was just compete,” Riverside coach Alex Ramirez said. “We’ve been working on that all week, even silly little games. We were just trying to compete, compete, compete until it’s done. Until that point, there’s still something to compete for. They just did that.”
Junior Liam Franz-Watt started the rally by sneaking a long shot of over 40 yards behind Southern Durham goalkeeper Sean Centeno to make it a one-score game.
“I saw the goalkeeper coming and no one from my team was near,” Franz-Watt said. “So I just turned around, and I looked back, (and) the ball was in the net. I was like, ‘Oh. Ok.’”
Said senior Henry Powlas, “That’s when I knew there’s a little something left for us to grab, and we just had to go for it.”
Shortly after, Franz-Watt assisted Powlas on a header to tie the game.
“They were giving me space, so I just lofted it in again, and Henry got on top of it.” Franz-Watt said.
With just over a minute remaining, Franz-Watt sent another pass near the net, and it found its way to junior Ollie Maurer-Cohen, who tapped in the go-ahead goal from close range.
“The ball came in the box, and I tried to hit it in the goal, but it just went straight up,” Maurer-Cohen said. “It came back to me again. If you get a second chance, I guess you’ve got to take it. Game’s not over until it’s over.”
The first half was tightly contested with both teams clawing for chances at a score.
About 15 minutes into the game, Southern Durham struck first as junior Ben Setser headed a corner kick from junior Anderzon Alvarado through the net.
The score remained 1-0 at halftime. Riverside began the second half on the attack and quickly landed a tying score from senior Eli Besch by way of a throw-in pass from senior Jacob Feller.
The Spartans stormed back minutes later with a major response. Junior Armando Campos aced a free kick from left of the goal, and a minute later, junior Joshua Galena rebounded a blocked shot from Setser in front of the net and tapped it in for a two-score lead.
Southern Durham controlled the possession for most of the second half, but in the final minutes, Riverside began winning 50-50 balls to create more chances to score.
With the win, the Pirates moved to 6-5-3 overall and 3-0 in Tobacco Road 6A/7A conference play, remaining atop the conference standings alongside Chapel Hill. Next week, Riverside will face two significant matchups against East Chapel Hill and the first-place Tigers.
“We have a full slate of games left to go against good teams still,” Ramirez said. “So we’re not going to let this one go to our heads, and we’re just going to keep pushing and not make this the best night of our season.”
Southern Durham fell to 3-4-6 overall and 0-2-1 in the Tobacco Road conference (tied for fourth with Northern Durham).