Fike Boys Season Ended

The Fike High varsity boys soccer seniors departed its home field Wednesday for the last time. The golden Demons lost 3-2 to West Carteret in the opening round of the 3-A state playoffs. Wednesday’s affair proved to be a physical affair, with calls and no calls. Midfielder Adrianne Vasquez staked the Golden Demons to an early 1-0 lead, but a pair of penalty kicks placed visiting West Carteret on top en route to a 3-2 Fike loss in the opening round. Fike, the No. 2 seed from the Big East Conference, concludes its year at 12-9-1. West Carteret, the No. 3 entrant from the soccer-rich Coastal Conference, improved to 12-5-5. The Patriots will face the winner of the Hunt-Currituck game. “They definitely let the guys play more physical than we were used to,�? Fike head coach Toni Varacchi reviewed. “It seems like we were on the receiving end of most of the calls whether good or bad. It’s kind of hard to fight through that in a game.�? But the Demons, who narrowly outshot the Patriots 18-17, struck for an early goal. A failure by West Carteret to clear the ball in the fifth minute resulted in Vasquez getting a leg on the ball and sneaking it past goalkeeper Nick Green for the early 1-0 Fike lead. However, the lead didn’t hold for long when the Patriots of West Carteret were awarded two penalty kicks, storing both in the back of the net. “We knew that they would throw three forwards at us and I was afraid playing flat across the back, that speed-wise we wouldn’t be able to match up playing that way,�? Varacchi said. “We didn’t, and then we moved Drayton (Williams) into a sweeper position in zone three, which they had to adjust to. We limited their looks, and the one look that they got was when unfortunately, we had just had Drayton up and just didn’t have enough time to recover and get set up defensively. That’s all part of the game.�? “We knew that they would throw three forwards at us and I was afraid playing flat across the back, that speed-wise we wouldn’t be able to match up playing that way,�? Varacchi said. “We didn’t, and then we moved Drayton (Williams) into a sweeper position in zone three, which they had to adjust to. We limited their looks, and the one look that they got was when unfortunately, we had just had Drayton up and just didn’t have enough time to recover and get set up defensively. That’s all part of the game.�? Over the final 23 minutes, the Demons had quality chances to tie. Carson Davis pushed to the fringe of the box and drew Green off his line, but the Davis shot was snared by Green at the top of the area with 23:02 showing. “It was a rough game,�? Davis affirmed. We enjoyed it. We’re a young team, and that physicality was different. It was just a different game. They come from a great conference and I think we adjusted pretty well, but in the end, they ended up beating us.�?