If there is anyone who would contradict the previous remark, have them contact C.B. Aycock -Herrera made the Falcons believers last week.

All the senior standout did was score all five goals for the Trojans in a come-from-behind, 5-3 overtime victory in a battle of Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference unbeatens.

The triumph, the eighth straight for South, improved the Trojans to 11-4-1 overall and a conference-leading 6-0, while 15th-ranked Aycock saw a seven-game winning streak and 13-game unbeaten string come to an end in falling to 12-2-1 overall, 5-1 in the ECC. The Trojans will host Aycock Thursday night as both teams wrap up league play. A South win in that encounter would give the Trojans the title outright.

Herrera, undoubtedly the catalyst of the Trojans squad, upped his goal-total to 47 for the season and over 130 for his career with his performance.

"He's a terror if he's anywhere inside the 40," said South coach Jeremy Byrd. "We've seen him score from everywhere. And when he gets close, my heart goes faster, because the more times he's on the ball, the more chances he has to make something happen."

Herrera was everywhere inside the 40 for the Trojans, providing the leadership necessary as South overcame an early 2-0 deficit. The Golden Falcons looked like one of the top teams in the state, and appeared on the verge of blowing the Trojans out, grabbing that 2-0 advantage in the first eight minutes.

The first goal came when Chase Thompson took the ball up the left side of the field 90 seconds into the match and fired a shot into the left side of the net past startled Trojans goalkeeper Dolton Bledsoe.

The Falcons continued to apply pressure in the first ten minutes, earning a corner kick midway through the eighth minute.

Thomas Vial fed the ball to Jose Rodriguez, who returned the ball along the end line to Thomas. Thomas quickly moved the ball down the line and slipped a shot over the goal line past Bledsoe from the right side for the 2-0 advantage.

"That was a case of us standing around, looking for who we would be guarding," Byrd said, "Instead of watching who had the ball."

At that point, Herrera, who had been bottled up in the middle of the field, took over.

South began moving the ball up the field with consistency following Thomas' goal, and were rewarded when Derek Brewington moved in from the right side and fired a shot that Falcons keeper Edward Howell batted away.

Herrera was in the right place at the right time, at the left post, and blasted in his first goal of the night with 26:30 left in the half, trimming the deficit to 2-1, which stood through halftime.

In the second half, Herrera took the team on his shoulders, as the Trojans generated scoring chance after scoring chance, before Herrera broke through the goal crease and headed in a right-to-left cross from Brean Laya with 31 minutes remaining to level the score.

"It doesn't make any sense," Byrd said, "That a 5-foot-3 little dude like that gets his head on that many balls.

"Out of the 47 goals he's got this year, 20 have been by headers. It doesn't make sense how he gets in there and does the things he does."

Momentum swayed back-and-forth throughout the next 26 minutes until Aycock scored a go-ahead goal with just over five minutes to play.

That score came on a cross from the right side of South's defensive third to the top of the box, where Rodriguez blasted a shot into the right corner of the net, pushing the Falcons back in front, 3-2.

But the lead was short-lived, as Herrera, upping his game to another level, won the ball from the Falcons at the top of the box, took a few steps and hammered home yet another tying goal with 3:17 left in regulation.

"Everybody who plays defense against him (Herrera) is at a disadvantage," Byrd said. "Because they don't know what he's going to do. I don't even know what he's going to do."

Byrd said Herrera rarely makes a mistake.

"We talk about defending players," Byrd said. "If you can limit them to one, two or three touches, they'll make a mistake.

"That doesn't apply to Edgar -- every tine he gets a touch, that gives him a chance to put you out of place - he'll set the defenders up the whole time, he sees the play before it happens."

Herrera made one those plays moments after the Falcons missed a golden opportunity to take the lead.

With two minutes left in the first of two 10-minute overtime periods, Brandon Davis hit the left goalpost with a rocket, which the Trojans claimed and took up the field. Eduardo Vasquez located Herrera by the fight post, and Herrera deposited the go-ahead goal into the net.

The Trojans picked up an insurance goal in the second overtime period, when Herrera scored on a cross from Laya with three minutes to play.

"In the early minutes, we were standing around with our mouths open, thinking, 'Holy cow, we're at CBA playing soccer'," Byrd said. "I'm so happy we didn't stop after falling behind 2-0. Many times in the past, we would hang our heads and quit, but tonight, we just kept playing soccer."

And with the win, the Trojans are in uncharted territory for the program - first place at the midway-point of the season, with a conference title on the horizon.

"I've never been in this type of situation," Byrd said. And now, we have to keep playing like this, because the bull's-eye is definitely on our back now."