Pack beat rain, Warriors to reach third round of state playoffs

Published 7:45 pm Friday, May 16, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

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Maybe the Washington High School girls’ soccer team should play in the rainy weather more often.

For the second time this week, the Pam Pack overpowered their opponent in the Class 2A state playoffs under less than ideal weather conditions. After rolling to a 9-0 win over South Granville on Monday in a driving rainstorm, the Pack looked bright and sunny on the field for most of the first half against Eastern Wayne on Thursday.

By the time some strong storms dumped lots of rain and hail and even prompted two tornado warnings, Washington was well in command, leading 4-1. They added another goal after a nearly two-hour delay due to the weather, then took the win, 5-1, after the game was called at halftime due to the poor playing conditions.

“Yes, sir, it’s something that we worked hard on,” said Jamie Perez, who scored a goal. “I feel like the rain definitely made us be more proactive rather than reactive, which is something that we preach a lot. We make sure to be more on our toes than we usually are.”

The weather forecast for Monday? Only a 5% chance of rain. However, Washington won’t have to go on the road to play its third-round state playoff game. Instead, the Pack (15-2-1), the No. 6 seed, will host East Duplin on Monday at 6 p.m.

The No. 19-seeded Panthers knocked off No. 3 seed Princeton 3-2 on Thursday, meaning another home game for Washington, which hasn’t lost at home since a 5-0 setback to Richlands on March 18. That’s 11 straight wins and a tie home and away since that game. Washington has outscored its opponents 64-2 during that stretch.

“This is the first time we’ve made it past the second round since the team in 2014 went to the state championship,” Washington coach Kendall Cox said. “So that following year, I came on board as an assistant and then took over a few years ago as head. We’ve made it past the first round, made a second and get stopped in the second.

“Even when I played here, we never made it past the first round. It’s a big moment. It was one of those things at the beginning of the season, I was like, ‘Yeah, I think we’ll do OK, and then you get here like, ‘Oh, we are doing good.’”

The Pam Pack got two goals in a four-minute span early for a 2-0 lead. Sophomores Elizabeth Barrera Meza and Caroline Mitchell each scored in that stretch, part of a two-goal game by both.

Meza’s second goal came three minutes after play resumed and just before the game was called. She caught a rebound of a teammate’s shot and punched it hard into the net on her second try after the ball rolled around.

“Yeah, I think that us playing in the rain has made us improve a lot, especially since, if the ball like falls into a puddle, it’s hard to kick and it’s hard to like pass,” Barrera Meza said “And it’s like we’re learning more about like how to kick the ball more up in the air because some people on this team, usually like we’re having trouble, especially me, we’re having trouble like sending the ball up in the air. And so that last goal, I really like, I hesitated because I was like, ‘Wait, hold on, there’s puddles there.’”

The only blemish, if you can call it that, was Washington gave up a goal to Eastern Wayne’s Taylor Waters after taking the 2-0 lead. Waters sprinted quickly up the field and put the ball past senior keeper Eileen Escalona, who had pitched three straight shutouts with her defense and had held five of the last six opponents without a goal.

“So honestly, that goal, I didn’t predict it,” Escalona said. “It came by, she came by really fast. And I knew that they were shooting outside the 18. So I wasn’t in the right spot to be like, trying to pressure her.

“But after that goal, I kind of knew in my head where she would shoot the ball. And I kind of like I had a game plan.”

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