CFNN Reporter Madison Raymes 

On Tuesday September 6, the Cape Fear Colts traveled to Lumberton High School to play the Lumberton Pirates. This was the opening action for the Colts in United 8 Conference play. Unfortunately, the Pirates were too much for the Colts to handle, taking the victory 5-0. The loss put the Colts 2-5-1 on the season and 0-1 in U8 Conference play. 

Although the Colts have been practicing very hard one thing that Coach Bryan Pagan said is that the team is not working together as a team. 

“We are not communicating,” said Pagan after the match. “If we don’t communicate we will not have a lot of success. We have a lot of good individuale players, talent wise but they are not playing together.”

If the Colts start practicing working together and communicating as a team they will be able to succeed and win their upcoming matches. 

“They always give good effort; it’s just the matter if they’re all doing different things and not on the same page there’s not gonna be any cohesiveness so that’s kinda where we’re at,” said Pagan.

The Colts quickly took those lessons to heart on Thursday when they took the pitch against Union Pines at home. Cape Fear grinded out a 3-2 win over the Vikings. This was a huge step up from Tuesday’s game. 

In the first half, freshman Francisco Rodriguez started the scoring with the first goal of the match. It would be the only score of the half, putting Cape Fear up 1-0 at the break. 

The second half saw a flurry of action, as Union Pines evened the score at 1-1 with a goal of their own. The Vikings responded again midway through the half with another goal, putting them up 2-1. 

It was a tight match until Junior Julius McLemore broke loose for a score to tie the match at 2-2. McLemore would answer with another score late in the match to seal the win for the Colts. 

“I think we had better communication as a team because we don’t do that. I felt like every player gave what they needed to give for us to finish strong.” said McLemore. 

This was a big win for the Colts after the loss on Tuesday. Although it was a non conference match, every win helps. The Colts now sit at 3-5-1 on the season. Communication was the key to success. Winning the match meant working together as a team. The Colts have many more games to win as long as they communicate and work together. 

“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.”-Hellen Keller