HILLSBOROUGH - Top-ranked Carrboro clinched its first conference championship in boys soccer with a 4-1 overtime victory last week at Cedar Ridge.

In a proverbial closer-than-than-the-final-score match Wednesday night, the Jaguars gave up a goal in the 65th minute, but they then scored the game-winner with one minute left in the first overtime and added two more goals in the second OT.

The win cleansed the memory of a 2-1 loss to N.C. Science & Math in last year's season finale, which cost Carrboro the 2010 conference title. It also made up for a 4-2 loss last Monday to Durham School of the Arts that probably will cost Carrboro it's first No. 1 ranking in program history.

"Obviously, Monday night was a big blow for us," Carrboro coach Mark Kadlecik said Wednesday at Cedar Ridge. "We've never been in this position before. Here we are, a 5-year-old school, and this is our first conference title, our first time being ranked that high. We didn't know how to handle that."

"A lot of the kids took the loss harshly," Carrboro senior Burke Beatty said. "We didn't play very well, and we knew it. The good thing that came out of it was that we pushed ourselves way harder."

Carrboro (19-1-2, 14-1-0 Carolina-12) controlled play for most of Wednesday's match at Cedar Ridge (10-9-3, 8-5-2), taking a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute of play on Connor Roach's header off Thar Thwai's service from a sideline.

Two other near goals were waved off by officials, one for an offside call and another because the ball bounded off the top of the crossbar before it was headed in.

With 15:15 left to play, Cedar Ridge's Henry Mandeville beat a Jaguar to a ball along the sideline and centered it to Stone Faison, who one-timed it into the net for a 1-1 tie.

Carrboro got three more solid chances on-goal in the final 12 minutes of regulation but could not get ahead.

"We didn't put our chances away, and they punished us with that beautiful goal," Kadlecik said.

Carrboro atoned for that in the last minute of the first overtime. Niko Krachenfels headed in a corner kick from Sam Hickey. Four minutes into the second OT, Hickey scored on a hard shot from 20 yards out, and then Krachenfels fed Thwai for a fourth Carrboro goal.

"It's a great relief to win this," Beatty said. "Every year, when we didn't quite win the conference, everyone was telling us 'you'll win it next year ... next year.'

"I just wanted to win it so bad. To finally win it is a fantastic feeing -- to know we finally came through on our potential."

Wildcats win PAC-6 title for the first time

DURHAM East Chapel Hill completed a total turnaround from its 1-6-1 start to the season and won its 10th straight last week -- all in conference play -- to win its first PAC-6 championship.

The Wildcats won a tie-breaking rubber match at Durham Jordan, 1-0 Thursday night, getting the conference-clinching goal from Luka Vujaskovic off a corner kick from Michael Balog with about 8 minutes left to go.

East played the final 24 minutes a man-down after a Wildcat was red-carded for physical play, a call hotly disputed by East's players.

Jordan (16-4-0, 9-1-0) and East Chapel Hill (11-6-1 overall, 9-1-0 PAC) had split their two conference meetings, each one winning 1-0 at their rivals' home field. The Falcons, the undefeated state champions in 2010, had won five straight since losing Oct. 6 to East.

"Finally winning the conference feels like we've freed ourselves from all the pressure we've been under all year," East senior Alessandro Racioppi said. "We'd lost a lot of players from last year; we had a new coach (Austin Collins). No one believed we'd do anything -- and now we've won the first (Piedmont Athletic) conference championship in East history."

East field just five seniors this year -- Racioppi, Elvin Blanden, Eric Centento, Demaris Crews and goalkeeper Levi Brown, who had been recruited from the school's powerhouse lacrosse program.

"Everyone underestimated us," Racioppi said.

W.E. Warnock