Two teams remain in the Sampson County Middle School lady soccer conference — the Sampson Dark Horses and the Midway Rams. Tuesday night both birthed wins, Midway defeated Hobbton 4-1 and Sampson shut out Roseboro-Salemburg 6-0.

Tuesday, April 28, the top two-seeded teams will face off at the Hobbton High School soccer field for the championship.

The lady Rams are advancing from the well-played physical game against Hobbton, said their coach Jerry Faircloth. “I can tell you from my side of the field Hobbton played good defense, but our offense was a little faster at getting shots off.” Midway drained two in the net in the first half, and two more in the second. Hobbton scored once in the second half.

“For success, I credit the goals to the mid-fielders; they kept the pressure on and intercepted a lot of passes and kept the ball in Hobbton’s end of the field,” said Faircloth.

Scoring for Midway were Allie Apperson with two goals, Reagan Warren with one and Hannah Hairr with one. “Two other players of note,” said Faircloth, were, “mid-fielders Farriath Jackson and Julie Warren.”

“We’re looking forward to the rematch with Sampson. They beat us earlier in the season,” added the coach. In the first week of play, the Rams were shutout by the middle school Dark Horses 8-0. “That was the first game of the year. We are a much better team now than we were then. Our mid-fielders and forwards have improved the most.”

Sampson coach Gib Palmer commented that he expects the same effort from his team next week that earned them the 6-0 game against Roseboro-Salemburg Tuesday. “I think we had pretty much control of the game. I thought Roseboro had a tough and physical team that was not easy to beat, and I will expect that same type of game against Midway.”

Tuesday Palmer turned to three of his keepers, Tory Tindal, Katherine Gusierrez and Anna Jaramillo. None, he said, let in a shot.

“It was a great effort by our girls,” said Palmer about the Roseboro-Salemburg game. Goals were scored by Margaret Coleman, Gracin Palmer and Tory Tindal.

Michael Connolly can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 120 or can be e-mailed at sicity@myclintonnc.com