news-record.com

GREENSBORO — The power went out at UNCG Soccer Stadium near the end of Tuesday's N.C. Coaches Association East-West All-Star girls soccer game, so the first 20 minutes of the proceeding boys game were played without lights. A salmon-colored glimmer on the west horizon, rapidly shrinking by the minute, provided the only protection from darkness.

"It was getting pretty tough to see," said Northwest Guilford's Aaron Adams, who assisted on the game's first goal as the West would go on to win 4-1.

Finally, with about 18 minutes left in the first half, the scoreboard flickered and the lights started humming back to strength. The crowd gave its loudest cheer of the night.

"All right," said UNCG public address announcer Gary Ross, "we don't have to pass out candles."

As he finished the sentence, the lights shut down again.

Players looked around for a minute, then continued playing.

Power came back on again a few minutes later — long enough for Ross to quip, "The check has cleared, and we're ready to play" — before stumbling dead again.

It finally came on for good just before halftime, and the West midfield provided the rest of the power from there.

MVP Donnie Smith of Charlotte Catholic scored twice and assisted on the game-winning goal. He got the West on the board in the eighth minute off a touch from Adams.

The East tied it five minutes later on a bizarre long-range goal by Franklinton's Josh Woodburn. Smith put the West on top for good when his free kick found Myers Park midfielder Justin Davis for a score.

He made it 3-1 eight minutes after halftime when he teed it up from 25 yards out and drilled it past East goalkeeper Scott Goodwin of Raleigh Broughton.

The exclamation point came in the 59th minute when Winston-Salem Reynolds' Luciano Delbono raced up the right side and threaded the needle to a charging Cort Smith, who pounded it in with a sliding finish.

"I thought there would be a lot of stars out there, but it was more team-oriented," Adams said.

Northwest goalkeeper Jeff Basey, who will play for N.C. State in the fall, made four saves for the West. One of Basey's saves came at point blank in the near-dark, but he said he didn't have too much trouble seeing the ball.

"I was just nervous that we weren't going to be able to play," said Adams, who will also try to walk on at State. "Once the lights came back on, I was shocked."

He laughed.

"No pun intended."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com

East 1 0 — 1
West 2 2 — 4

Goals: East — Josh Woodburn; West — Donnie Smith 2, Justin Davis, Cort Smith. Assists: West — Aaron Adams, Smith, Luciano Delbono. Shots: East 10, West 9. Saves: East (Scott Godwin 2, Klay Davis 1) 3; West (Ronnie Hreha 1, Jeff Basey 4) 5. Corner kicks: East 3, West 6.