By Eric Lusk
Sports Editor
elusk@elkintribune.com

MORAVIAN FALLS — Forbush soccer coach Seth Davis started to feel like maybe victory wasn’t meant to be for his team with about 12 minutes left in Saturday’s playoff match at Wilkes Central.

The Falcons trailed 3-1 at the time and were on the attack. A deep throw-in put Wilkes Central’s keeper under duress, and the goalie’s only move was to try and knock the ball back over his own goal and out of play.

But what looked at first like the perfect opportunity to score a garbage goal turned into an easy save for Wilkes Central. The ball never made it back over the goal, hitting the post instead and bouncing right back to the keeper away from danger.

Wilkes Central hung on to win the game 3-1, eliminating the Falcons from the 2A bracket.

“That’s when I realized that maybe we were done,” Davis said. “I said, ‘You know maybe it’s just not going to work tonight. We pushed at the end of the game and were getting shots, but we just couldn’t get one in.”

The final whistle Friday night had to be a strange feeling for the Falcons. While Forbush ends the season with an official record of 16-9, no other team on the schedule this fall actually beat the Falcons on the field.

Forbush won 24 games in a row, though it had to forfeit eight August and September victories for using an ineligible player. The Falcons beat Wilkes Central 5-3 and 4-1 during regular season conference matches, eventually forfeiting the first victory.

Wilkes Central ended up losing to Surry Central 2-0 in Monday night’s 2A West semifinals. Surry Central played at Shelby in Wednesday’s 2A West title game (after press time for this issue), a contest many thought would include Forbush. The Falcons spent most of the season ranked No. 1 in the state in class 2A, even after having the forfeits announced.

“It’s tough,” Davis said. “All three teams (Surry Central, Wilkes Central and Forbush) were quality teams this year. It’s hard to get through.”

Wilkes Central scored the game’s first goal late in the opening half, but Forbush tied it up two minutes later. Javier Guadarrama found the back corner of the net on a free kick from 30 yards away.

The Falcons seemed out of sorts in the second half, in part because they were without key starter Gerardo Gomez. He collapsed during the game, clutching his chest when he went down, Davis said. Doctors on hand tended to him and all agreed it was too risky for him to compete in the second half.

Gomez will have additional tests done to determine what caused him to collapse, Davis said.

“The guys tried to come together and play hard, and tried to pick it up for him, but it wasn’t in the cards,” the coach said. “We were struggling to score, and they were doing a good job defensively. They just didn’t make a mistake on defense. Every shot we got we had to earn.”

The Falcons lowest scoring output this season before Friday came in a 2-0 win over Starmount on Oct. 5. Only three other teams — Polk County, 3A St. Stephens and 4A RJ Reynolds — managed to hold Forbush under three goals.