CARY - Cary Academy senior captain Robert Kaufman experienced two ties and a loss to Cary Christian in his first three years of high school.

With past disappointing finishes on the mind of his and other Chargers teammates, Cary Academy scored four first-half goals and wasted no time securing their first win over the Knights.

"We definitely came out with a fire because we tied them the past two years," said Kaufman, who contributed a goal and an assist to the 6-1 victory Friday at Cary Academy.

The Chargers opened the scoring when Caelan Harshaw took advantage of an assist from Alex Kacvinsky to make it 1-0 just 10 minutes into the game.

They added three more goals in the next 12 minutes, as sophomore Trevor Gordon scored on assists from Kacvinsky and Kaufman before Eric Eubanks capitalized on a rebound to cap the decisive early burst of offense.

"We played good soccer and I saw a direct result of what we worked on in training this week leading to the game," Cary Academy coach Jeff Costa said.

"We were really crisp with our passes, and we put a lot of good balls in dangerous positions and we got runners into the box. We probably should have had a couple more goals."

Cary Christian coach Brian Twidt said his team's youth on defense contributed to the early deficit.

"We lost some seniors, so defensively, we're not stepping up and putting pressure on the opponent," Twidt said.

"They were able to get the ball into our offensive third and turn and set plays. We really just have to learn to pressure more. We have some guys that haven't played defense before."

The Chargers pushed the lead to 5-0 on a second half corner kick by freshman Cohen Dworsky, whose assist was finished in the box by his brother Collen with 36 minutes remaining.

Cary Christian snapped the shutout nine minutes later on a goal by senior captain Daniel Rice.

Kaufman scored a rebound goal with 13 minutes remaining to provide the final tally in the senior class' long-awaited first victory over the Knights.

"The guys were ready to play," Costa said. "A lot of the guys live next to each other and give me scouting reports on their neighbors. They play club ball and church basketball together and they know each other, so that makes it a pretty big rivalry."