And it resulted in a winning goal for the Bengals, foiling a bid for a huge upset by visiting West Johnston.

Gonzalez scored into an open left side of the net on a cross from fellow senior Andrew Sotak in the 76th minute, giving Fuquay-Varina a 2-1 soccer victory over the scrappy Wildcats and keeping the Bengals’ perfect record in the series intact.

Fuquay-Varina, which had beaten the Wildcats 6-0 on the road last year, improved to 3-0-1 on the season while West fell to 3-1-1 in the 4-A non-conference battle.

“I was pleased with the way we responded in the second half,” Bengal coach James Mountford said. “We weren’t playing our best soccer, but in the second half we moved the ball well, made some runs out of the back and created a lot of opportunities. West Johnston deserves a lot of credit. They were really organized. Coach Sweat has done a great job with them."

“Having to win this way was probably good for us, but that’s not what I was thinking with six or seven minutes to go.”

Both defenses were outstanding, as the Bengals of the Tri-Nine put only eight shots on goal to West Johnston’s three. Gonzalez scored both goals for the Bengals, while Tyler Goss scored the Wildcats’ goal.

Cody Livingston made six saves for the Wildcats of the Greater Neuse River, while Adam Lawrence had two for the Bengals.

“It was a learning experience for us, because you want to play state playoffs-caliber teams,” said West assistant coach Ben Bondurant, who handled the primary coaching duties as head coach Ken Sweat was on his way back from a graduate school class. “To this point, this is as well as we’ve played.

“Goss had a beautiful goal. It was a hard-working goal from a young man who works very hard. And Cody was Spider-Man in goal.”

The game was scoreless until the 33rd minute, when Gonzalez – who now has seven goals on the season – did some fancy footwork in the box for an unassisted marker to get the Bengals on the board.

“We just came back late to win it,” said Gonzalez, who did not play as a sophomore or as a junior. “We should have beaten them by a whole lot more, but at least we were able to get the win. We worked harder in the second half.”

Goss shocked the home crowd just seconds before halftime, when he stole Lawrence’s clearing attempt and hit the back of the net to make it 1-1.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it,” Goss said. “He came out of the box and I was right there. I was ready. We’ve been wanting to beat them for years.”

There it stayed until the minutes were winding down, with Gonzalez receiving Sotak’s perfect pass from the right side of the box and putting the ball home before Livingston had any chance to recover. It was Sotak’s fifth assist and 11th point of the season.

“West Johnston has really grown as a team,” Sotak said. “They’re very much improved and gave us a run for our money. I thought I had lost that ball, but fortunately I was able to get that cross to Adrian who had the skill to bury it.”