CLINTON, N.C. — The downside to starting off a year as dominant as Clinton’s boys soccer team has is that it hasn’t run into enough adversity to prepare it for its ultimate goal of a state championship run.

That finally came on Monday night as the Dark Horses, for the first time this season, trailed in a match.

In a battle of undefeated teams, however, No. 18 Clinton showed it could handle an early setback, scoring three unanswered to win 3-1.

“How bad do you want it?” Clinton coach Brad Spell challenged his seniors. “They gotta be hungry and come ready to work in practice and they last thing I told them (tonight) is we’ve got to get better. Yeah, congratulations on the win, but you can’t be satisfied.”

James Kenan (4-1) scored first as electric forward Peter Omega — a HSOT Honorable Mention all-state player a year ago — got free down the left side and his right-footed blast hit the far side netting.

That put the Tigers up 1-0 in just the 14th minute.

Clinton (8-0) answered quickly in the 20th minute as Oscar Adasiak was the second head on a Walker Spell corner kick. A Chris Zelaya strike that took a deflection off a James Kenan defender with just seconds remaining until halftime made it 2-1.

The final tally was Griffin Williams slotting home a rebound that had caromed off the near post in the 72nd minute.

The rest of the month looks tougher for the Dark Horses with games against Richlands, J.H. Rose, and Wallace-Rose Hill in nonconference plus at Midway to start league play.

James Kenan begins its league play next week. The Tigers are currently fifth in the 910 area code rankings, while Clinton was third.

Source: highschoolot.com