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Photos by Amy Wrenn/Nighthawk News

Bending but not breaking. That’s the theme of First Flight’s women’s soccer team, according to coach Mark Cross. And Tuesday night at 6, the team will see just how far it can bend.

The Nighthawks will embark on a nearly four-hour trip to play against the top seed and defending champ Carrboro High School in the NCHSAA 2-A East Regional final.

First Flight has had a solid season, taking home the conference title and currently sporting a 20-5-1 record. The seventh-seeded Nighthawks have been a sleeper in this year’s playoffs, overcoming 26th seed Durham School of the Arts, 10th seed East Bladen, 18th seed Southwest Onslow and 11th seed – and conference rival – Currituck. First Flight beat the Knights 3-1 on Friday night to advance.

After dominating the first three rounds of competition, Carrboro (19-1-2) faced its first real challenge in a fourth-round showdown against Clinton High School. Although the game went to overtime, Carrboro managed to reel off three goals in the extra minutes to win the game 5-2.

“I don’t know much about the team, but I’m feeling they are resilient,” Cross said.

First Flight’s players are looking forward to the challenge of taking on the top seed in the East, as women’s soccer has had its share of Carrboro in the past. The Nighthawks’ only win ever against Carrboro came in an early-season tournament, but they’ve never beaten the state power in the playoffs.

This will be the team’s first appearance in the fifth round of the playoffs since 2008, when First Flight won the state championship. Since this year’s team is primarily made up of freshmen and sophomores – there is only one senior and three juniors on the roster – the team will have to resort to its unorthodox style of play in order to counter the superior age of Carrboro, which has a combined 11 juniors and seniors.

“We’re basically a JV team playing in a varsity league, so a lot of what we do is so unconventional,” Cross said. “But I think we will come out on the right side of things tomorrow.”

If that happens, and First Flight advances to Saturday’s championship, this young team will have proved plenty of doubters wrong.

“We all went into this (season) thinking we may not win conference or beat Currituck, and now that has all changed,”sophomore central midfielder Brayleigh Jones said. “We’re so young and everyone thought we wouldn’t get anywhere where we are now.”