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Pungo Christian Academy’s Taylor Rouse chases down the ball with an Albemarle defender during the first half of their game. (Jason O. Boyd | Washington Daily News)

Emily Copes, left, celebrates her goal with teammate AvaHaiyes Cox during the second half. It gave Pungo Christian a 2-1 lead at the time. The Raiders went on to win, 3-2, over Albemarle. (Jason O. Boyd | Washington Daily News)

BELHAVEN, N.C. — Two victories over Albemarle School couldn’t have come at a better time for the Pungo Christian Academy girls soccer team.

McKinlee Cox’s goal in the 77th minute not only locked up a tough 3-2 victory over Albemarle School on Monday, it also secured a postseason berth for the Raiders (4-4-1, 4-1 Tarheel Independent Conference). Lawrence Academy holds the top spot in the conference, but the Raiders get the second seed and will host the conference tournament after the Easter break.

That, and Tuesday’s 2-1 win at Albemarle, was a triple dose of good news for the Raiders. PCA is the NC Independent Schools Athletic Association defending Class 1A state champs, but has struggled this season. The team lost top returning scorer Julia Rosue, a senior, to a torn ACL in the state basketball playoffs.

The Raiders are a long way from the 16-2 finish and state title from last year but are making strides to get better with each game, head coach Logan Van Staalduinen said.

“I think a lot of that just has to do with inexperience,” Van Staalduinen said. “I don’t want to say immaturity, but it’s just that lack of knowing how to approach those situations as a team right now. So that’s something we’ve been working on all year.

“We’ve been playing in tight games all year. So I’m hoping, since we were able to pull this one out with a win today, that we can kind of learn from those mistakes as we should and build off that for the last month of the season.”

Albemarle (0-9-1, 0-6) gave Pungo all it could handle throughout the game, playing good defense and taking advantage of mistakes and other opportunities. The Colts matched Pungo goal for goal until Cox’s score broke a 2-2 tie and seemed to give the Raiders the lift they needed to close it out.

“I was just thinking, ‘Get it into the back of the net’,” said Cox, an eighth grader. “Honestly, I just wanted to win this a lot. I wanted to win.

“It was a little frustrating at first. I was definitely frustrated myself because I knew we could play better, but then after I sat on the bench for a couple minutes, I really was thinking about what I need to do to win this game and when that ball came to me, all I thought about was get it in the net.”

Emily Copes, a sophomore, and Lexy Tate, a freshman, scored Pungo’s other goals. The Raiders dealt with windy conditions and a tough Colts defense to push through each time and then battle back when Albemarle scored.

“Well, I know we were all pretty gassed, and I went to go throw that ball in and I was just praying honestly that someone would get a foot on it,” senior Sayla Brown said of the winning goal by Cox. To see (Lexy) Tate teed it up perfectly for McKinlee, and she capitalized on it, it was just so a weight lifted off everybody’s shoulders for sure.

“Honestly, I think that when it tied up 2-2, we were really like, ‘OK, now we really need to lock in and go ahead and win this thing.’ And everyone knew that even though we were all gassed, a thing that we like to remind ourselves is Julia Rouse cannot play. She wants to play, she can’t play, and when you’re tired, when you’re giving out, look at her and be like ‘OK, she can’t play and she’d do anything to do this.’

“So we all pushed to the last bit of our energy, and we tried to win every single ball, and we wouldn’t give up until we got that extra goal.”

There were some missed goal opportunities by the Raiders that would have made the game a bit easier. However, Van Staalduinen knew that if PCA kept attacking on offense, something good would happen soon.

“When those aren’t going in and you look at the scoreboard and you see how hard you’re working and you’re only up 2-1, that wears down on you,” Van Staalduinen said. “And then you see that it’s 2-2 with three minutes to go. We finally started to pick it up a little bit.

“And then, you know, I’ve preached to the girls all year. The more shots that you attack on goal, the more chances you’re going to have to score. And so I don’t need it to be perfect. I don’t need it to be pretty. I just need it to hit the back of the net. And it just so happened that McKinlee’s found the back of the net and it was pretty.”

Katie Bowers and Tate scored Pungo’s goals in Tuesday’s win over Albemarle.

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