APEX - Despite holding a 19-6 edge in shots, the Apex boys soccer team, ranked seventh in the state, still needed overtime to down their old rival Cary by the 2-1 score.

The hero was senior Arturo Alvan, who scored on a breakaway with 3:57 left in the second overtime period.

Alvan's shot was the 27th fired by an Apex player, compared to just eight by Cary.

The Imps, coming off a 9-0 loss to 10th-ranked Fuquay-Varina two days earlier, fought off shot after shot by the Cougars on Wednesday. Goalkeeper Kelly Chege posted nine saves and turned away several of Apex's tantalizingly close shots.

After a scoreless first half, it was the Imps who got on the board first, with a goal by junior Eric Inscoe with 32:43 left in regulation.

Inscoe fired it in from inside the box, where he received the ball from teammate Luis Gomez.

Cary coach Joy Nsubuga-Mogbo said she wasn't pleased with her team's effort against Fuquay, and through mass substitutions she got her team's attention in time for Wednesday -- not that any extra emphasis was needed for the rivalry game.

"We re-grouped after the Fuquay game," Nsubuga-Mogbo said.

"I'm not disappointed and I'm not angry. It should've went another way tonight but that's OK. It's better than what we did Monday night."

Apex coach Kevin Todd, meanwhile, said he had to convince his team to not take Cary lightly despite their recent score. In each of the last three years, Cary has sent Apex into overtime.

"When you lose that badly, you want to come out and prove that that was not you. And they proved that was not them," Todd said.

"I told the guys before the game, 'We've gone into overtime with them the past three years. Always overtime.'"

Cary's backline turned away Apex chances, but sometimes a little luck was involved. In all, four Apex players hit the post, while the ball rolled perilously in front of the goal line on three more occasions.

With so many near chances not working, Apex became visibly frustrated when they were called offside in the second half -- twice taking goals away from the Cougars.

Clark, a senior, wasted little time making up for one wiped-off goal when he beat tied it up with 18 minutes to go.

Just two minutes later, however, the Cougers went a man down as Parker McNeeley was given a red card for a hard foul.

The one man advantage didn't stop Apex from testing the Cary back line, but the Imps held strong for the rest of regulation and the first 10-minute overtime period.

Just when it seemed Cary was going to earn a tie with a top-10 team, Alvan sealed it.

"I was telling [teammate] Michael Forsyth in the first overtime 'I wish I had a breakaway,' " Alvan said. "So then I finally get one and I scored."

Nsubuga-Mogbo said her team did have some things to build upon after hanging with a talented Apex team.

"This is a game that we could've won. Apex was playing a man down and we should've kept possession more. I think we started rushing it, playing quicker, too fast," Nsubuga-Mogbo said. "We didn't use that advantage."