Senior Luke McCray was highlighted by coach Russ Warren as one of the leaders of the team this season. (File photo)

Senior Luke McCray was highlighted by coach Russ Warren as one of the leaders of the team this season. (File photo)

<p>Senior Jayden Espino (black jersey #10) was also named as one of his team’s leaders this season. (File photo)</p>

Senior Jayden Espino (black jersey #10) was also named as one of his team’s leaders this season. (File photo)

<p>MHS Senior Goalkeeper Keller Godwin, green jersey, is shown stopping Clinton’s Walker Spell on an attack in their faceoff last season. (File photo)</p>

MHS Senior Goalkeeper Keller Godwin, green jersey, is shown stopping Clinton’s Walker Spell on an attack in their faceoff last season. (File photo)

<p>Luis Florido (white jersey #21), a senior for the Raiders, is shown here colliding with Clinton’s Ryan Freeman (black jersey #6) during one of their matchups last year. (File photo)</p>

Luis Florido (white jersey #21), a senior for the Raiders, is shown here colliding with Clinton’s Ryan Freeman (black jersey #6) during one of their matchups last year. (File photo)

Midway boys soccer made a run into the second round of the playoffs last season, but coach Russ Warren is looking at what they can do this year.

“I’ve got a good group of seniors coming back,” said the Raiders coach. “So, it’s just working hard in the offseason. Doing the drills, working out in the offseason. Getting in good shape, staying in good physical condition.

“We had a few injuries during the playoffs — that’s kind of what sidelined us last year,” he continued. “So we’re trying to work on improving that. Just building on the pieces we’ve put together over the last four years. It’s simple: just work hard.”

The Raiders on the pitch were 19-3-1 overall last season, including 5-2-1 in conference play, which was good enough for second in the SAC-6 Conference, behind Clinton.

They faced off against Seaforth in the first round of the playoffs, beating them 1-0. They played Wallace-Rose Hill in the second round, falling to the Bulldogs 3-0 in early November.

This was the second year in a row that Midway made it to the second round of the playoffs in boys soccer, which is as high as they’ve gotten in the battle.

“Our main goal is to get to the third round,” Warren said, in regards to the upcoming season and beyond. “We’ve been close. It’s hard in the playoffs. Sometimes, it’s just a coin flip.”

Warren said their second place conference standing last season is motivating his team this year. “We’ve been kind of middle-of-the-road, and then last year we had kind of a step up,” he said. “We’re looking to improve that. Our seniors are coming back, juniors are coming back; they’re hungry. We’re looking for first place — with Clinton, it’s always tough … our goal is first place.”

From 2020-22, Midway was seemingly stuck in a rut of 9-loss seasons. Warren said patience is what got them over that. “I told the senior class that graduated last year, when I first started, when they were freshmen, ‘Guys, it’s going to take three or four years’,” he said. “First year, we won two games. Then 10 games, 10 games. And last year it finally just clicked together.”

He also noted that some of the seniors from last season were starters for all four years of high school, saying that it “makes a big difference.” Some of his players, this season, will be four-year starters as well.

Warren says a majority of the goals last season came from five of the seniors, but he has the confidence in this year’s senior class and those below them to make a difference.

The Raider coach said it will be a collective effort from the team for success this year, but he highlighted Jayden Espino, Luis Florido, and Luke McCray as the leaders of the team. “I have Keller Godwin in goal, this will be his third year starting in goal,” Warren said. He also said that he has some younger guys “stepping up”.

A good freshman class, said Coach Warren, is coming his way, and he doesn’t know who he’s going to be able to work into the rotations. “I’ve got a pretty good group [overall],” he said. “We should be pretty good.”

When it comes to how he has built the winning culture at Midway, he attributes it to having the kids believe in themselves as well as him. “Just have confidence, you know? We’ve got a pretty good system; we’ve found a formation that works for us,” Warren had to say. “Winning begets winning, as they say. You become addicted to winning, and you want to keep it up.”

“We saw an uptick in attendance at our games last year,” said Warren, on how the community helps him and his players. “People like winners. You keep winning, they’ll keep supporting.

“I didn’t play soccer growing up, I played basketball,” he attested. “So, I see the game through a basketball mind; how the movement and everything like that works.”

He said he is hard on the players during practice, noting that he is a little bit more vocal. “In the games, I try to be more calm and subdued,” he said with a smile.

Warren noted that his favorite moment of last season was going to Clinton for their “hype game,” where the two giants on the pitch battled it out.

Midway opens their season on Aug. 12 at Hobbton.

Reach Brandt Young at (910) 247-9036, at byoung@www.clintonnc.com, or on the Sampson Independent Facebook page.