CLEVELAND TOWNSHIP, N.C. — Fuquay-Varina boys soccer spent most of the night trailing at Cleveland, but once double overtime hit, the lid came off for the Bengals.
Senior Landon Babineau scored the go-ahead goal for F-V with 7:40 to play in the second extra period. That was followed quickly by another goal by senior Kenny Lozano. With that, the Bengals seized a 3-1 lead in a game it trailed 1-0 with eight minutes to play in regulation.
As the regular season hits its final stretch, the Bengals (11-3-3, 7-0-1 Greater Neuse River) earned a much-needed road victory, 3-1, over Cleveland (11-1-5, 5-1-2 GNRC) in a thrilling double overtime battle. The victory puts Fuquay-Varina in firm control of the league standings.
“It’s about time for our boys,” Fuquay-Varina head coach Jared Smith said. “They’ve been playing well this year. They’ve played a lot of tough teams and they finally put a big win on the board for us.”
The first meeting between the conference foes ended in a 2-2 tie in double overtime at Fuquay-Varina on Sept. 16. That instant classic was followed up by yet another high-energy, 2OT affair between two top 15 teams in the 919.
Cleveland entered the game unbeaten, though the Rams had five ties on their record, which came against Willow Spring, Southeast Alamance, Corinth Holders, F-V, and most recently Garner on Oct. 8.
The Bengals have played a similarly competitive schedule. They dropped three early season contests in August to Apex Friendship, Green Hope, and Harnett Central — all of which are highly-regarded teams. Since then, Fuquay-Varina has tied with Willow Spring, Middle Creek, and Cleveland.
The pair entered the game the only two GNRC teams without a loss in league play. The next closest was Garner at 4-2-1, meaning that Monday’s contest could be the de facto conference championship.
The Bengals put a lot of pressure on the Ram defense from the very start. But each time F-V got a shot on goal, it was stalled by Cleveland goalkeeper Will MacArthur, who had a sensational game in the goal during regulation.
Eventually, MacArthur and the defense helped set up a breakaway goal for Julio Casanova with 24 minutes to go in the first. That made the score 1-0, which it remained for 56 minutes of game play.
“Keep the foot on the pedal and work on finishing that ball because we’ve had lots of opportunities,” Smith told his team when they trailed throughout the night. “[Fuquay-Varina’s] goalkeeper did a great job tonight. He blocked a lot of balls that could have gone in, and I just told the boys, we’ve got to focus on finishing the ball — they finally did.”
MacArthur continued to wipe away opportunities in the second half, put a yellow card changed the game with eight minutes to play.
After being fouled feet away from the goal, Bengal senior Sebastian Oyuela-Perez drew a penalty kick and sent it past MacArthur and in to tie the game, and ultimately, dethaw the F-V offense.
“It started out with uh Sebastian getting a PK opportunity for us,” Smith said. “He’s worked hard for us all year. He’s coming back from a knee injury, and he definitely has been a spark for our team coming off the bench. So, we wouldn’t have done it without him.”
The game remained knotted for the remainder of regulation and throughout the duration of a scoreless first overtime period.
However, just over two minutes into the final overtime, Babineau scored on a rebound to give F-V its first lead. That ignited the Bengal offense, which wasted no time adding on to the lead as Lozano netted one in the opposite side of the goal for an impressive score.
That 3-1 lead held until the buzzer sounded and it handed Fuquay-Varina control of the GNRC.