Triton boys soccer falls to Harnett Central 1-0 in hard-fought rivalry game
Sept. 30, 2026
By: Ben Ellis
Triton boys soccer and Harnett Central played like two rivals at the top of their conference on Wednesday night, competing intensely from start to finish.
It was the Trojans (10-3, 7-0 CPC) who ultimately came out on top, scoring a point-blank goal on a fortunate bounce in the first half, to which the Hawks (10-4-1, 5-1-1 CPC) could not answer.
“In England and Europe, they call this a Derby — two teams in the same town, and I consider us to be in the same town, playing each other — it’s always going to be hot,” said head coach Brian Foster. “All these guys know each other, which is exactly what you would expect for a local game, and we knew it was going to be aggressive. We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game. It absolutely was, all 80 minutes of it.”
It was evident early on that this was going to be a physical contest. Just a few minutes in, an on-field collision sent senior Jared Lopez to the ground, who laid down for several minutes before having to get helped off the field due to an apparent leg injury. Lopez would enter later in the contest, but this set the tone for the rest of the match.
Another collision a few minutes later led to another Triton injury, which did not sit well with Foster, who earned a yellow card for arguing with the official following the play.
Despite the early injuries, Triton still had its chances in the first half, but ultimately could not convert. Meanwhile, the Trojans scored the game’s only goal with 11:10 left in the half after a shot ricocheted off the saving hands of senior goalkeeper Masen Pavlic, who could not recover in time as Harnett Central’s Au’mir Tillman scored on the bounce.
The second half featured more physicality and emotionally-charged play, but in the end the score remained 1-0 as the Trojans continued to remain undefeated in conference play.
The Hawks fought tooth-and-nail against the top team in the conference, only allowing a goal on a lucky bounce for the Trojans. The next time the two teams face off will be at the end of the regular season in Erwin, and Triton has its goals set on trying to take the conference title away from Harnett Central.
“It absolutely stokes the fire,” Foster said. “We want to win every game between now and then because I would like to take the conference title away from them… We stay on their tails the entire time, keep working hard like we have been, and we should be able to play for the conference championship when we see them again in October.”
Undoubtedly another positive takeaway was the Hawks’ ability to maintain their composure throughout the night despite the highly competitive nature of the game.
“We talked about the fact that sometimes when you’re in a game like this, and the other team’s being aggressive, you’ve got to match that aggressiveness, but you’ve got to match that aggressiveness under control,” Foster said. “I was very impressed with the way that they carried themselves out there, because even though the game got rough and some calls were made, some calls weren’t, the boys kept playing. They played all the way up to the final second, and that’s all you could ask for as a coach.”
One could even argue that the Hawks outplayed the Trojans as Pavlic only had to make seven saves compared to 21 saves made by Harnett Central. But moral victories ultimately don’t show up in the win column, and if Triton wants to be able to win the conference regular season title, the Hawks will have to take the same intensity into the six games before the rematch.
Triton’s next contest will be at Lee County on Oct. 5 at 6:30.
