news-record.com

Greensboro Day's victory celebrations this season -- there were plenty -- were decidedly subdued, a ho-hum acknowledgment that larger aspirations loomed. The breakthrough came Saturday, as the Bengals capped an undefeated season by upsetting Charlotte Latin 3-1 in the NCISAA 3-A championship at North Raleigh Christian Academy.

"It almost felt like all the emotion from all our wins came out today," GDS head coach Taylor Johnson said.

It's the third state title in school history and first since 2000. The Bengals finished 17-0-3, their first undefeated season ever. They capped it by defeating the defending champions, who knocked them out in last year's semifinals. Charlotte Latin had been ranked just ahead of GDS in the N.C. Soccer Coaches Association polls.

"That team expects to win, because they always do," Johnson said.

Eduardo Alvarez scored all three goals for the Bengals, who led 1-0 at the half, went up 2-0 with 20 minutes to play and answered Charlotte Latin's only goal within two minutes. Alvarez missed several weeks with an ankle injury this season and was visibly frustrated that he wasn't 100 percent as soon as he came back -- even though, as Johnson said, "his rusty is still better than most people."

"We stressed for him to be patient and it paid off."

The Bengals' semifinal game kicked off at 7 p.m. Saturday, giving them little more than 12 hours to recuperate from the last one. He said when he checked the players' hotel rooms at 11 p.m., "everyone was there, but no one was asleep."

"We kind of encouraged them all season, during tough practices or at halftime of games that weren't going their way, a reminder of our goals and that one of them was to be in this game," Johnson said. "It was fun, man."

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