Blog

Oct 17, 2024

Top of the table: Coastal Conference soccer teams clustered in standings | Sports | jdnews.com

Richlands boys’ soccer coach Mike Roed said his players were a little bummed following Tuesday’s 4-3 loss in extra time to White Oak, but that he tried to settle them down by explaining that the

Richlands boys’ soccer coach Mike Roed said his players were a little bummed following Tuesday’s 4-3 loss in extra time to White Oak, but that he tried to settle them down by explaining that the Wildcats were not out of the conference title race.

“The guys were like, ‘You think we just lost the conference championship,’ ” Roed said. “I think the conference champion will have at least two losses and maybe a tie.”

Roed wasn’t lying about the Coastal 3-A Conference winner potentially dropping multiple fixtures.

Four matches into the conference schedule, and Croatan, Swansboro and White Oak sit at 3-1, followed by Richlands at 2-2, West Carteret at 1-3 and Dixon at 0-4 following Thursday’s games.

Look deeper, and the four teams atop the table have virtually beaten each other.

Four-time reigning conference champion Croatan lost 1-0 to Swansboro but topped White Oak 4-3 in overtime and downed Dixon 4-1. Richlands defeated West Carteret 4-0 and topped Swansboro 2-1 in extra time, but fell at White Oak.

Swansboro won 1-0 in overtime over West Carteret while White Oak owns a 4-2 result over Dixon.

On Thursday, Swansboro defeated Dixon 2-1, Croatan downed Richlands 5-0 and White Oak topped West Carteret 3-0.

Confused yet?

“It has been a crazy start to conference play,” Croatan coach Paul Slater said. “I would not have predicted that four teams would have been 2-1 (after three games. It will be interesting to see how things play out.”

While there are seven other league games scheduled following Tuesday’s results, it is not often in any high school sport to see such a cluster in the conference standings.

League coaches attribute that to every squad being fairly similar.

Moreover, while Croatan (9-7-2) appeared to have had the toughest nonconference slate, no one team was in complete domination mode before kicking off Coastal Conference play.

Richlands sits at 10-5 overall, Swansboro is 9-5-2, White Oak is 6-7-3, West Carteret is 4-7 and Dixon is 10-8.

“We know each other so well. Each team has their own strengths and by nature, their own weaknesses,” Slater said. “Any one of these teams can get hot and make a run. We will see in two weeks teams starting to get separation.”

White Oak coach Mike Larose agreed that familiarity plays a big role in the early conference fixtures.

“At this point, we don’t have to exchange rosters before games because we know they the other teams have and they know what we have,” he said. “Kids are kids and some nights things will work and some nights things won’t work.”

The key to winning the conference will be to stay focused, Swansboro coach Ricky Cook said.

“It’s a tough conference and everybody has to show up every night,” he said. “If you don’t put in the work, you will lose. The teams are very equal. Whoever has the better mindset and better discipline will come out on top. It will come down to who wants it more.”

That can be challenging since teams play on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“If you get one of those hard-fought battles, you have 24 hours to recover before you have to get right back to it,” Larose said.

Roed agreed.

“You have to have a short memory,” he said. “You can’t dwell on the Tuesday game or you will lose on Thursday.”

While Croatan, Richlands, Swansboro and White Oak are tied for first place, Dixon still looks for its first conference win.

“You can’t have off nights, and we’ve had a couple of off nights,” Dixon coach Kevin Hart said. “One win would definitely give us momentum. This conference is tight, but we believe we can compete with anyone in the conference. We know we are 0-4, but we believe things are not over yet.”

Chris Miller can be contacted via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @jdnsports.