Myrtle Beach, St. James soccer win on road, to meet again in Lower State finals

He isn’t Nostradamus, but Drew Pavy saw it coming from a mile away.

The St. James soccer coach said after an April 27 loss to Myrtle Beach that the two teams could meet for the Lower State finals. His prediction turned out the be true and now a team from the Grand Strand is guaranteed a spot in the Class AAA state finals.

The Sharks outlasted Aiken 2-1 on Saturday on the road and now will meet the Seahawks – who beat Brookland-Cayce 2-1 in penalty kicks – in the Lower State finals on Tuesday.

“When we last played, I said I could see us playing again,” Pavy said. “I thought we were two of the best teams in the state.”

After two straight road wins in less than 24 hours and with nearly 15 hours of total travel time, the Sharks will certainly take advantage of the two days they have off before the biggest contest in program history.

“I call them the road warriors,” Pavy said.

Keaton Zimmer scored on a PK, and Quadarius Grate scored the game-winner for the Sharks. Defensively, Haywood Brandon made eight saves and held one of the top teams in the state to one goal.

“I told them they’re the threats and they left it all out on the field,” Pavy said of his squad. “We were fortunate for the result.”

Meanwhile, Myrtle Beach had a dogfight of its own on its hands in Cayce.

Hunter Hardin scored for the Seahawks in regulation, and after the overtime periods, Franz Lamjca, Jarvin Ramirez, Abdul Masharifov, Aldolpho Aguilar scored in the penalty kick frame before Brandon Harrington scored the game-winner. Before the PKs, Harrington told Myrtle Beach coach Jason Himmelsbach he wanted the be the last guy to kick.

It paid off.

“I knew he made a good kick and the guys just went nuts; they were excited,” Himmelsbach said of Harrington’s goal. “We’ve been practicing PKs in every practice of postseason, so I had confidence they could do it. He told me he wanted to be the guy and I’m proud of him and all my guys for their toughness and handling it until the end.”

Himmelsbach called the win the closest game he’s been a part of as a coach and gave Brookland-Cayce plenty of credit for keeping pace.

“It was a very hard-fought, closely contested game,” Himmelsbach said. “Brookland-Cayce is a good team; they had an outstanding season. We were fortunate to be able to battle with them; they threw a lot of good attacking plays and we were able to withstand. Our defense played strong in the back and we held on; it was a great game.”

St. James beat Myrtle Beach 1-0 on Feb. 28 in a non-region tournament game, and the Sharks edged the Seahawks 4-3 in double overtime on March 17 in their first Region VII-AAA match. But the Seahawks avenged those losses with a 2-0 win over St. James on April 27.

“We told them after that last game that we’d love to see them again,” Himmelsbach said. “Now it’s happening.”

And Himmelsbach knows the stakes.

“A team from Horry County will definitely be in the state championship,” Himmelsbach said. “It’s pretty cool.”

Pavy believes it will help the program moving forward.

“We’re setting the tone for the program in the future,” Pavy said. “St. James soccer is relevant now and we have big aspirations moving forward.”

And while Pavy’s certainly delighted, he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them but it’s not over yet,” he said.

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 11:41 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach, St. James soccer win on road, to meet again in Lower State finals."