Rami Ghanayem had seen it happen before.
The ninth-seeded men’s soccer team fell behind 3-2 late in Tuesday’s ACC tournament opening-round match against eighth-seeded Virginia Tech in Boyds, Md. After leading 2-0, the team was on track for a repeat performance of its 3-2 loss against the Hokies in Raleigh on Oct. 9.
In the loss earlier in the season, N.C. State had lost a 2-1 lead. With that previous loss in mind, Ghanayem, a senior defender, said he hadn’t gotten comfortable with the team’s two-goal lead it had taken roughly 19 minutes into the second half.
“It’s tough to be complacent when you get a lead like 2-0. It’s a very dangerous lead to have because you can get real comfortable,” Ghanayem said. “So I just told my guys to lock it in and try and hold on for this win.”
But that wasn’t enough to keep the Hokies from scoring those three goals in a row to take a 3-2 lead in the game’s 87th minute. With that score, Ghanayem said a small hint of doubt came over him, but that he still expected to earn the victory.
“There was a feeling in the back of my head [of here we go again], but before [the goal] the game was in our favor,” Ghanayem said. “We were dominating the whole second half, and I knew it was just a speed bump we needed to get over.”
And sure enough, into the spotlight stepped sophomore defender Ronnie Bouemboue, playing in only his seventh game of the season. Bouemboue, who had scored the Wolfpack’s first goal earlier in the second half, scored 17 seconds after Virginia Tech took the lead, tying the game again at 3-3 with fewer than four minutes to play.
After the teams combined for zero goals in the first half, Bouemboue said the second half was a whirlwind.
“We pushed the ball up more. We got the ball in the offense more,” Bouemboue said. “And the second half, it was just an all-out attack. We were going for the win.”
But Bouemboue’s heroics didn’t stop with his second goal, as he scored once more 88 seconds later on a bicycle kick to give the team a 4-3 lead and eventually the victory over the Hokies.
Bouemboue, who was playing in only his seventh game of the season after a leg injury slowed him earlier in the year, said he even surprised himself by recording a hat trick – three goals in a game.
“I don’t usually score a lot of goals. I try to set them up,” Bouemboue said. “But I was shocked that I was able to put those goals away.”
Even so, Ghanayem said his teammate’s play didn’t come as a surprise to him.
“Ronnie’s a great player. He knows it. He knows what he has to do. He stepped it up today,” Ghanayem said. “We’ve been missing him, so he decided to carry the team on his shoulders and get the job done for us.”
With the win, the team advanced to a 2:30 p.m. quarterfinal against Duke today at the Maryland SoccerPlex. When the State faced the Blue Devils on Senior Day on Oct. 15, it allowed the ACC regular season co-champions to score the last four goals in a 4-1 loss. But Ghanayem said State should have a good chance against Duke in today’s match.
“We were up on them in the last game, and we just let it slip. So we know how to handle these guys,” Ghanayem said. “Hopefully, we can stay focused, the seniors can step up and we can take charge, get good performances from everybody.”
Following such a strong performance on Tuesday by Bouemboue, though, Ghanayem said the team will have to make sure it spreads the ball around against the Blue Devils.
“Duke’s going to be expecting it. So they know what Ronnie can do now,” Ghanayem said. “So it’s time for other people to show what they have – go out there and get it done. We need everybody’s help.”
