ROCKINGHAM — Meeting in the conference championship game for the third time since 2017, the No. 1 Rockingham and No. 2 Ellerbe girls’ soccer teams battled it out at Richmond Senior High School on Tuesday.
A halftime tie was undone in the final 30 minutes by the top-seeded Lady Rockets, who earned a 3-1 win over the Lady Wildcats.
In the three championship meetings over the last five years between the two teams, Rockingham has won all three.
Off the opening kick, the Lady Rockets took a 1-0 lead in the first 20 seconds of the match. Presley Dawkins played a ball through to Jentry Denson, who finished with a shot inside the box.
Rockingham’s Jentry Denson (right) scored one of the team’s three goals in Tuesday’s championship win. (Deon Cranford/The Richmond Observer)
Ellerbe responded by keeping the pressure on for much of the first half, and was rewarded in the 23rd minute.
Mariana Gonzalez Aguilar, the Lady Wildcats’ leading scorer this season, found the back of the net to tie the game 1-1. That score would hold until the intermission.
“Ellerbe brought it and really came to play today,” Rockingham head coach Asheley Turner said. “We scored the first goal in the first 30 seconds and I thought it was going to go quicker than it went. Our girls fought really hard and we managed to pull it out in the second half.
“Our girls gave it 100 percent every day this season,” she added. “They know how to have fun, but come game day, they all have game faces. It’s all them and I’m really proud of them.”
Ellerbe’s Mariana Gonzalez Aguilar (6) smiles after scoring her goal. (Deon Cranford/The Richmond Observer)
In the closing 30 minutes of the match, the Lady Rockets secured the championship win with two unanswered goals.
Scoring first was Addison Butler, and Cadence Gazoo added the insurance goal with 7:54 left in the match.
The Lady Rockets finished the season undefeated with an 11-0 record, while the Lady Wildcats went 9-2.
