As long as Mark Kadlecik has been coaching at East Chapel Hill, he can remember only one time his Wildcats have come all the way back from a two-goal deficit to win a soccer game.

Last week’s two goals against Carrboro weren’t enough for a win, but they did make for a satisfying tie.

East Chapel Hill became the first team this year to score a goal on undefeated Carrboro. In fact, the Wildcats scored twice Tuesday to come back from a two-goal halftime deficit and get a 2-2 draw with the Jaguars, the state’s top-ranked 2A team.

"You don’t want to put yourself in this position of having to tie, but for us to even come back and tie after being two goals down, I’m happy with the character we showed," said Kadlecik, a coach at East since 2002. The moral of the story is don’t put yourself in that predicament. But that first goal was huge. Getting the second was great."

East Chapel Hill started strong, but Carrboro jumped on some Wildcat errors in their defensive third and struck on the Jaguars’ first shot with 14:13 elapsed. Frankie Perone centered a ball across the six, where Kylie Tawney struck on the run for a 1-0 Carrboro lead.

Carrboro took a 2-0 lead with 9:08 left in the first half off a corner kick from Anna Gachechiladze into a scrum of players just out side the six-yard box. Samantha Burch headed it in to put Carrboro up by two goals.

"We were really, really down as a team at the half," East Abby Underwood said, recalling a halftime discussion with Hanna Gardner, coincidentally the Wildcat who scored the game-winner two years ago to cap a 3-2 comeback win at Green Hope. "We got together at the start of the second half. We knew if we could work together and get that first goal, it would just take off from there and get some momentum going."

East Chapel Hill broke Carrboro’s string of 12 games without giving up a goal — dating back to last year’s playoffs —with 24:58 left in the match, when Gardner collected a loose ball just past midfield and slid it past an onrushing defender to male the score 2-1.

Underwood tied the game less than 5 minutes later after receiving a ball in the middle of a crowd near the top of the penalty area. She spun away from two Carrboro defenders and launched the ball as she was falling onto her back, scoring with 21:15 left in the game to tie it at 2-2.

Both teams had chances in the final 20 min. including a final shot by Tawney with 30 seconds left to go, which required East keeper Blakeney Blair to make one of her five saves to preserve the tie.

The result left 4A East Chapel Hill 6-4-3 overall and 2A Carrboro (9-0-2), with its other tie being a 0-0 draw March 9 with East.

"It’s another tie. That’s frustrating after we had a 2-0 lead at halftime, but good for them," Carrboro coach Robin Bulleri said. "They took advantage when we got a little bit complacent."

"East is a very good team. We play a lot of little schools in our conference. It’s nice to have some real competition in our district. It helps keep us focused and honest about how we’re playing."

"Throw out that 2-A, 4-A stuff<’ Kadlecik said. "They are very good. They are right up there with anybody we have played this year. In fact I think they will do very well in the state playoffs.

"We have (3A) Chapel Hill next, and I hope we have the legs left for that."

W.E. Warnock