Strong finish pushes A.C. Flora past St. James for boys soccer title

Throughout these playoffs, regardless of where or who it was playing, the St. James boys soccer team had kept finding ways to extend the best season in program history closer and closer to the ultimate goal.

And for a moment Saturday, it really did seem like these Sharks just might be a team of destiny.

After A.C. Flora missed a penalty kick late in the first half, St. James broke a scoreless tie early in the second half to take control of the the teams’ Class AAA state championship game.

Unfortunately for the Sharks, though, that moment was short-lived as A.C. Flora responded with five unanswered goals on the way to closing out a 5-1 win over St. James at River Bluff High School to claim its first boys soccer state championship.

“Like I tell the guys every single game every year, ‘If you can leave it out on the field that’s all I ask of you.’ They left it all out on the field,” St. James coach Drew Pavy said, trying to keep perspective after a breakout season. “I hope this sets a precedent for St. James soccer.”

Robert Weldon scored three times in the second half and added an assist for A.C. Flora (17-3-1), Daniel McClam notched a goal and two nice assists and Tanner Reagle scored one goal in the win for the Falcons while Tristen Fields had the lone goal for St. James (20-4-1).

Both sides were vying for school history as neither had won a state championship in boys soccer before Saturday. It was A.C. Flora’s second appearance in the state finals and St. James’ first after winning three road games to advance in the postseason. Additionally, the Sharks were looking to become the first boys soccer team from any Horry or Georgetown County school to win a state championship.

And, again, they gave their traveling fan contingent reason to believe it just might happen.

Late in the first half freshman defender Garrett Greene knocked down McClam from behind to set up a Falcons penalty kick with 2:29 left on the clock. McClam got senior goalkeeper Haywood Brandon to dive in the wrong direction, but he missed wide right with a mostly empty net in front of him to keep the game scoreless at that point.

Then, just 1:17 into the second half Fields took a flick from fellow senior Quadarius Grate and slid it into the corner of the net for a 1-0 St. James lead.

Fields took off running past A.C. Flora’s side of the field as the Sharks celebrated the go-ahead score.

“The feeling was great running in front of the A.C. Flora student section and everything because they were just talking [trash] and everything, but at the end of the day I got the short end of the stick,” Fields said later.

Indeed, the mood quickly changed for the Sharks.

Reagle scored the equalizer 2:18 later on a second-chance shot after Brandon saved A.C. Flora’s initial shot on goal and about a minute after the Falcons had sent a header off the crossbar.

Then with 31:40 remaining, Weldon scored the first of his three goals on a nice pass from McClam right in front of the net to give the Falcons a 2-1 lead.

“That was a tough one,” Pavy said of the sudden lead reversal. “They say most goals are scored after goals. That was tough.”

The Falcons were just getting going, too.

A little more than five minutes later Weldon scored again, using a nice pivot in front of a defender to turn around and blast his second goal into the net for a 3-1 lead. With 10:19 remaining, he did it again on another good feed from McClam for a 4-1 lead.

And the Falcons later capped the scoring with 4:00 to go as the two stars of the game reversed roles with Weldon setting up McClam.

“Right after they scored we realized we had been giving them too much space, too much time and we weren’t being aggressive enough,” Weldon said. “That’s how we’ve been winning most of our games, so right after they scored we got on them quick and we just hoped to get it in our mind that we really had to do it right now or the season was going to be over and it wasn’t going to be a good way to go out.

“So their goal really just ignited the fire that we needed to get started and it just kept going through the whole game.”

For the Sharks, meanwhile, it wasn’t the ending they came for, but a season to remember nonetheless.

“We worked hard all year, we did what we needed to do; we just got to the final game and we just couldn’t finish the last half after we were up 1-0,” Fields said, holding the runner-up trophy. “It was just like we opened the gates. They always say the team that scores first is the most susceptible to let up more goals in the first five minutes after that ... and that’s exactly what happened to us today.”

Said Pavy: “It’s definitely the best season in school history by far. Breaking school records, breaking all kind of records. But this is the big one that we wanted.”

This story was originally published May 16, 2015 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Strong finish pushes A.C. Flora past St. James for boys soccer title."