FOUR OAKS - In a game of few serious scoring opportunities, South Johnston took advantage of a C.B. Aycock defensive miscue to grab the Eastern Carolina Conference 3-A soccer title Thursday night.

After South's Cameron Wood collected an errant clearing header at the top of the box, Wood calmly pushed the ball behind the defense into the path of a streaking Edgar Herrera. The senior standout pounced on the opportunity and deposited the ball into the back of the net to give the Trojans the 1-0 victory.

"I just couldn't be happier," said South coach and alum Jeremy Byrd. "It's the first time in our school history we won a conference championship; it's the first time we've ever been undefeated in conference. We couldn't be happier.

"We've had the bullseye on our back for 10 games now and I'm glad that part of it's over with."

South moved to 15-4-1 overall with the victory, its 10^th in 10 ECC matches.

The winning goal was set up by a free kick that was rocketed at the goal by Herrera from 27 yards out. C.B. Aycock goalie Edward Howell did well to push the attempt away as the ball was cleared out for a corner kick.

As the ball entered the mixer from the ensuing corner kick, the Golden Falcons (15-3-1, 8-2) had a chance to get the ball out of danger but instead headed the ball straight up into the air. As all of the Falcons began sprinting up the field anticipating the clearance, Wood slyly located Herrera as he slipped, undetected, behind the defenders who had been blanketing him all night long.

"We knew it would be a different game than what we had down there in the rain," added Byrd. "I knew it was either going to take a mistake by us or a mistake by them. [Cameron Wood] played the game of his life tonight. Edgar gets a lot of credit, but Cam's been on the other end of lot of his goals."

Herrera, who scored all five goals to defeat the Golden Falcons in the teams' first contest 5-3 in Pikeville, was shadowed wherever he went on the field. Thomas Vial drew the assignment for the first half until relinquishing the shadowing duties after receiving a yellow card for his efforts.

Herrera's conference-clinching goal was his 59th of the season. He is now just one goal shy of joining an elite group of players (there are only six) in state history that have scored 60 goals in a single-season. The historic, game-winning strike from Herrera's foot also moved him into a tie for third place all-time on the state scoring list with 153 goals.

For the final 33 minutes of the contest, South's best defense was its offense as the Trojans refused to sit back to protect the lead. South was able to continue to apply the pressure maintaining possession in its attacking zone for much of the rest of the game.

At the 21-minute mark in the second half, Herrera almost added an insurance goal off of a free kick. From 26 yards out, the senior curled one around the wall that had the goalie beat but just barely flew over the crossbar.

C.B. Aycock's best scoring chance occurred near the end of the first half when Daniel Ohnmeiss slotted a ball to Tyler Lynch inside the 18. Lynch went far post and had South goalie Dolton Bledsoe beat but the shot went begging across the face of the goal with no one there to answer. Bledsoe was rarely challenged the rest of the game thanks in part to the back line of the Trojans. The "four horsemen", as they've been dubbed by Byrd, did a good job keeping C.B. Aycock's Jose Rodriguez to the sidelines as they funneled him away from the goal. He had two of his shots blocked before they proved to be anything meaningful.

"Our defense has been together working as a unit- they work so well together," said Byrd. "We've got two seniors [Matt Blackmon and Jesse Holmes] back there and two juniors [Sam Lassiter and Edgar Granados] and they've been together for at least three years now. Those guys have just done a fantastic job all year."

South disrupted the passing lanes all night long for C.B Aycock, making it nearly impossible for the Golden Falcons to string together more than 2 consecutive passes. Wood and Will Dewey helped to control the midfield for the Trojans in the second half, winning numerous 50-50 balls, allowing the Trojans to remain on the attack. The Golden Falcons picked up the intensity down the stretch and put together their best offensive spurt of the night with ten minutes left in the proceedings. The wall that stood before Bledsoe, in goal, however, didn't crumble and prevented any good scoring opportunities for the Golden Falcons from ever materializing.

The Trojans had the better run of the play for most of the night producing the more dangerous scoring opportunities and out shot the Golden Falcons, 15-4.

In the 10-game tear through the ECC, the Trojans outscored their opponents 54-13. They head into the state playoffs having won 12 matches in a row.