But it was him finding an open teammate that sealed the Bengals' victory against Apex in the third round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A boys' soccer playoffs Tuesday.

With two Cougars defenders shadowing Gonzales as he worked his way down the right side of the 18-yard box, he lofted a pass back to the middle of the field, where teammate Andrew Lawrence slotted home a goal to make it 2-0 Fuquay with 15 minutes, 43 seconds left in the game.

"We do that a lot," Gonzales said. "He'll feed it to me and I'll feed it to him. (The defenders) all came to me and left him wide open."

The score stood as a final, meaning the Bengals are going to the fourth round for the first time in school history.

The Bengals will face their second straight conference opponent in these playoffs as they will travel to Green Hope on either Friday or Saturday.

Fuquay (20-4-2) is the only team to have defeated the Falcons (22-1) this season. Green Hope won the first meeting 7-2 but lost at Fuquay 4-2.

"(Green Hope) is the best team in the state and they deserve to be the No. 1 team," Fuquay coach James Mountford said. "It'll be a challenge but our boys will step up and play with a lot of heart and a lot of passion like they've been playing throughout this last half of the regular season and into the playoffs.

"It should be a great match because I know Green Hope will be ready and so will we."

In a first half where Fuquay controlled possession but Apex (17-5-1) led in shots taken, Gonzales put the Bengals on the board.

From the top right corner of the 18-yard box, he struck the ball with the outside of his right foot, allowing the ball to sharply turn from going toward the far corner of the net into the back corner.

Cougars goalkeeper Logan Rohde nearly picked it out, but it instead gave Fuquay a 1-0 lead with 8:07 left in the first half.

Gonzales' 54th goal ties him for ninth in NCHSAA single-season history. He ranks third nationally this season according to ESPN Rise, and he's already broken a Wake County record.