KNIGHTDALE - For just the second time in school history, the Knights defeated the Warriors 5-3 in a men's varsity soccer match last Monday.

The Knightdale win also marked the first time in three previous attempts the team ever topped East Wake under Warrior coach DeLane Hayes' two-year tenure.

East Wake came out firing on foreign turf to score first 11 minutes in on a Mike Paye goal assisted by Griffin Hefner. But when Muhammed Jammeh scored two minutes later, and the score remained tied through the half, the stage was set for the rematch that in no way mirrored the teams' first meeting at the end of September in which the Warriors won, 4-1.

At the break, Knightdale coach Andrew Vaglio told his team to win the 50-50 ball, and his team was all-ears.

Knightdale took a 3-1 lead on goals in the 49th and 63rd minutes. Alvaro Hidalgo Mackinley followed up on a Jammeh header attempt for the first, and Isidro Martinez connected with Victor Torres, who sent a dart straight at Warrior keeper Andy Shiver - who couldn't hang on to the ball in the soggy conditions - for the second with 17:48 left in the game.

East Wake then answered the call many times left ringing this season. Paye returned the favor to Hefner, assisting him on a breakaway one minute after Torres' goal, and crossed the ball to Trey Johnson with just over nine minutes left to play. Johnson one-timed the ball out of the air on a cross net shot for the tie at 3.

"Scoring those two goals to tie was just due to sticking to the game plan and not getting frustrated about being down a few goals," Hayes said.

But in favor of the home team, momentum never fled the Knightdale end of the field.

Torres followed up on a long corner kick when the ball settled between him and a congested net mo more than two minutes after Johnson's tying goal, and Mackinley followed up on a Martinez shot deflected by Shiver in the 88th minute to preserve the win.

For Vaglio, the win marked the end of a solid second half of the conference season. The Knights finished the first half 2-5. The second time around they finished 5-2. The 7-7 conference record marked a first for Knightdale.

"Early on I told the boys to just believe that we could compete with and beat any team that we play and that if we continued to work hard in practice and improve with correct instruction that good things would happen, and it has," Vaglio, a first-year varsity coach, said.

Perhaps more important is the Knights' season efforts merited a trip to the state playoffs. The fourth-place conference finish sends the team to Wilmington today (Wednesday) to face Ashley High School at 6 p.m.

East Wake didn't finish the season on a bitter note. The Warriors made up for a prior 4-0 road loss to Clayton with a 4-1 win in Wednesday's makeup game in Wendell.

"The boys are still hungry to get their first playoff win and these eight seniors will have to continue to lead our team if we expect to do that," Hayes said.

The Warriors travel to Fayetteville today to take on Jack Britt at 6 p.m.