It's Northwestern and Irmo In SC State Soccer Championship Again

The Northwestern Boys Soccer Team continued their journey defending the South Carolina 4A soccer championship Wednesday night with a victory over Mauldin.

“It’s hard to compare teams,” said Mauldin coach Joe Siatkowski. “Last year’s Northwestern team? Everybody knew. This year, for us, we knew we could play with anybody in the state. We’ve proven it all season.

“Just a couple errors and a good team will take advantage. It’s that simple, and missing the simple things in a big matchup will make it 4-1.”

The game was much closer than the score. In fact, Northwestern was out-shot by Mauldin.

Which brings up the rematch of the 2009 South Carolina, and National Championship Game. Irmo, THE Soccer Program in South Carolina's soccer history - and Northwestern - possibly THE South Carolina Program in the past 10 years. Irmo leads the series 7-5 (including an early season win over Northwestern 3-1) but Northwestern has won 5 of the last 6 meetings. The 7 PM meeting on Saturday, in Columbia's Municipal stadium, will be the 4th state championship between these two schools since 2003.

Northwestern is the underdog. It will take their finest performance of the season to win. (A limited number of tickets will be on sale Thursday and Friday in the Northwestern High School athletic office. Ticket prices are $8.00 ($10 at the game on Saturday). Northwestern will be the visiting team and will be on the side opposite the press box.)

(Photo from The Greenville News)