Greene Central, North Lenoir earn berth to the 2A soccer playoffs

Two Neuse News area soccer teams have played well enough to play in the postseason.

The Greene Central and North Lenoir boys soccer teams have made the 2019 2A state playoffs. Finalized playoff brackets from the NCHSAA were released on Monday with the Rams and Hawks both in the field of 64.

Greene Central fell short of the Eastern Carolina 2A conference championship in a 6-5 home loss to Washington last week. Despite that, the Rams, who won 18 games, earned the #16 seed. That means Matt Gnau’s team will still host a first round playoff game against #17 Croatan. 

North Lenoir finished third in the conference behind the Rams, but finished with double digit wins for the third straight year. The #25 Hawks will face a familiar opponent in the first round: #8 North Johnston. Chris Evans’ squad dropped both of their regular season meetings against the Panthers. However, they’ll get a third chance against the Eastern Plains 2A champions.

Unfortunately for South Lenoir, they were on the wrong side of the bubble. The Blue Devils had a solid season with a 9-11 record, but the final bracket didn’t have them in the playoff field. David Whaley’s team didn’t have a high enough AMPR (Adjusted MaxPreps Ranking) despite finishing fourth in the conference standings. The Kinston Vikings and Ayden-Grifton Chargers also failed to qualify for the postseason.

Both the Hawks and Rams will be in the 2A East regional bracket and the first round of the playoffs will begin Wednesday. They’ll both play at 6 p.m. with North Lenoir traveling to Kenly to face North Johnston and Greene Central hosting Croatan.