Nationally-ranked and two miles apart, Providence Day takes first match in soccer showdown
Providence Day showed why it’s one of the highest-ranked girls’ soccer teams in the country.
The No. 2 squad in the nation faced one of its toughest tests on Tuesday night. There’s only one school — anywhere in the country — that currently sits between the Chargers and rival Charlotte Latin on MaxPreps’ national rankings.
While the showdown highlighted the two best teams in North Carolina, it was the Chargers who flexed more muscle in a 4-0 win on a warm spring night in the Queen City.
Providence Day (10-0) found the upper corner of the cage early before adding a deep blast and a couple of late strikes. Its defense handed the Hawks their first shutout since last April’s meeting with their biggest rival.
“We showed them what we’re about this year,” said Chargers head coach Dan Dudley. “We’re not done. It’s just another win on our record. I’m just ready to keep it rolling — we’ve got eight or nine more conference games, that was our opening game — and they’re going to be our biggest competition.”
No. 4 Charlotte Latin (7-1), which had surrendered just one goal all season entering Tuesday, gave up multiple goals only twice last season — both its regular-season losses, at the hands of Providence Day.
The Hawks upended the Chargers in last year’s state championship game — and claimed their 13th overall NCISAA title.
But an offensive push during the first half in which they failed to score may have been their lone chance at a repeat win on Tuesday night.
Providence Day senior KK Hart got the scoring started, hammering a shot that dropped in just below the crossbar. The Chargers’ crowd rejoiced in the 33rd minute, and while it wasn’t their only score, it was the only one they needed.
Latin had its chances, including the final seconds in the first half — but Chargers sophomore goalie Molly Deblitz made a deft save and kept their opponent off the board.
Junior Jaida McGrew scored twice in the second half, first connecting on a long-range goal assisted by sophomore Abigail Goldean. Junior Blane McElroy scored in the 69th minute.
“Even some of those girls who didn’t play much tonight, they’re all talented players,” Dudley said. “Practice every day is competitive as anything. You can imagine going up to defend players like Jaida, and players like Blane and KK, and I think it just raises the level of everyone around, when you have players like that.
“The standards are higher. They don’t want to mess up, and it almost brings the best out of everyone. It’s kind of neat to see.”
These two teams have met in the last six NCISAA 4A girls’ soccer state championship games — and have split them, with each side boasting a trio of titles since 2017 (canceled in 2020).
This season, Providence Day has played a bit of a tougher schedule than Latin, and its results have been dominant. The Chargers are outscoring their opponents by a 44-9 margin and have handily knocked off public school powers like Ardrey Kell, Clover, Weddington, Myers Park and Page.
Before taking the pitch on Tuesday, Dudley reminded his players that they were 25 minutes away from winning four straight state championships.
They’d beaten Latin twice in the regular season and had their number for the last several years. But the Chargers were outplayed in the title game, and Dudley acknowledged that they deserved to lose.
Did that bother some of the players? It seemed to.
So, now that nearly 10 months have passed, he told his players to show how much that championship loss stung. The offense fired on all cylinders, and Deblitz recorded a clean sheet.
Providence Day still may see Latin two more times before this spring’s season is said and done. But the Chargers opened this year’s installment of one of Charlotte’s greatest rivalries in dominant fashion.
