Cougars move into Regional finals for rematch with Clinton

ASHEBORO — It was halftime of last Thursday night’s NCHSAA boys 4-A soccer regional semifinals between Southwestern Randolph and First Flight when a song blared over the loud speakers at Ivy. B. Luck Stadium.

It wasn’t a normal halftime song that one could hear at any of the 587 public high schools in the state of North Carolina. This one was different. This one was special. This one had a meaning.

An AI-generated song put together by head coach Jimmy Walker highlighted once again what this team has used for inspiration in its quest for the school’s first soccer state championship.

“We play for Pedro,” an upbeat-tempo tune that states why this team has been so driven to capture the state 4-A championship this year, after falling one game short last year. The song and this entire 2025 season honors Pedro Ortiz, a sophomore soccer player who was shot and killed in May of 2024. 

It was an incident still heavy on the minds of this year’s team, which captured a dominating 5-0 victory over First Flight that night to reach the regional finals against, in poetic fashion, Clinton, the team that ended the Cougars’ run last year.

“We play for Pedro,” Walker said the name of the song with emotion in his voice. “We have another senior who should be on this team and he would be right there on the starting lineup being part of an even greater team. He would have been a huge contributor to this team. So, yea, I am proud of these boys for living life and remembering their brother.”

The song may have just been what the Cougars needed to push them into the next round as they quickly turned a 2-0 halftime edge into a 5-0 blowout against a First Flight team that had won the 2023 state championship, lost just one time last season and had surrendered just 19 goals entering the match. 

The Knighthawks finished the campaign 14-4-2, giving up nine of the 24 goals surrendered all season in the three rounds of the playoffs, a pair of 3-2 wins over Ledford and Washington and the shutout loss to the Cougars.

“We’re undefeated in the fourth round,” Walker said. “We’ve only been here twice and won both times. It’s good to see. I told the boys before the game we are a great team. We deserve this number one seed, we deserve home field advantage, but what’s coming in here is a very good team. The only way good teams beat great teams is when the great team plays good. We continue to play great, we will be a handful for anyone.”

Next in line is Clinton, the team that captured the state 2-A title last year with a 3-1 win over the Cougars. The game is scheduled for Tuesday night at SWR's Ivey B. Luck Stadium. The winner moves on to the 4-A championship set for sometime next weekend.

The two teams already met earlier this year in Clinton, a game SWR won 5-1.

“Other people, other teams expect so much from us,” said senior Chris Betancourt, a transfer from North Moore who has scored five goals in the three playoff wins. “Of course, the fans. We’re the favorite to win. Honestly, we have to come together and we have confidence in ourselves. The first 10 minutes of the first half, they had us, but we kept pushing, we kept pressing and we got the goal and we started running and running and running.”

Aaron Avino took a chip pass from Fernando Hernandez to score with 8:10 left in the first half. It was Avino’s third goal of the playoffs and 37th of the season.

Less than five minutes later, Betancourt blasted a shot that deflected off the goalie, the goalpost and into the net for a 2-0 lead.

“Mentally, it’s everything,” Walker said of breaking through offensively. “Two-to-nothing is a very dangerous lead in soccer. They were down 2-0 in the last round and came back and won. I told them the next goal is very important because they haven’t seen 3-0. And in the second half against a quality team like us, that would be a steep mountain to climb.” 

It did take awhile before the Cougars were able to solve what the Knighthawks were doing.

“They tactically put some things on us we haven’t faced all year,” Walker said. “They were letting our backs go free, do whatever they wanted to do and compacting the middle. We had a hard time figuring it out, but got a couple in before halftime and that really loosened it up and they had to change their tactics because they won’t win the game like that. The boys pressed forward and away we go.”

Kevin Garcia scored the first of his two second-half goals from a tight angle at 32:48 and Griffin Hall added another with 24:50 left to play. Garcia then saved the shutout by heading the ball out of trouble on a shot that got behind SWR goalie Jonathan Perez-Dominguez.

“It was crazy, I thought it was going to go over me,” Garcia said of the shutout-saving header. “At halftime, Jimmy told us as soon as we score that third goal, they would put their heads down.”

Garcia added the final goal of the game with 17:44 to play on a blast from out in front.

After the handshakes, the song blared once again from the sound system. A song that mentioned individual SWR players and the inspiration they have received from the memory of a special teammate. An inspiration that hopefully leads the Cougars into their second straight state championship match with the opportunity to honor Ortiz with the ultimate prize.