ASHOSKIE -- The freshmen have been carrying the load all season for the Beddingfield varsity girls soccer team.
The trend continued Wednesday night in the first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 3-A playoffs as freshman Jamie DeRatt scored two goals and added two assists to lead the Lady Bruins to a 5-0 win against Hertford County.
Beddingfield, the third seed from the Eastern Carolina Conference, improved to 12-8-1. Hertford County, No. 2 from the Northeastern Coastal, finished the season 0-14-1.
The Lady Bruins next face Coastal Conference top seed West Carteret (21-3) Friday or Saturday on the road.
Beddingfield scored four goals in the game's first nine minutes, starting with DeRatt's tally off fellow freshman Corina Botello's assist just one minute in.
Junior Zolly Rivera set up DeRatt four minutes later, and freshman Ashley Batchelor scored goals in the seventh and ninth minutes off assists from DeRatt to make it 4-0.
"We kind of jumped on them early and then emptied the benches the rest of the way," Beddingfield head coach Glenn Griffin said.
Rivera scored two minutes into the second half unassisted for the final goal and junior midfielder Berenice Urieta controlled the tempo the rest of the way.
Lady Bruins keeper Vielka Givens registered two saves and DeRatt even stopped a shot in a stint in goal during the second half.
Griffin has been elated with the play of his freshmen. Their contributions have been vital to Beddingfield's success as seven of the 13 players are in the ninth grade.
"I'm very pleased with how the freshmen have stepped up," he said. "When you have that many, you don't expect them to play as well as they have, but I'm excited about what they've been able to do."
Griffin singled out the play of DeRatt and Batchelor.
"Jamie is a good athlete and it's difficult for most teams to match up with her," he said. "I was pleased with the way Jamie and Ashley didn't wait around and went right at them with no hesitation today."
West Carteret will be a tough matchup, but Griffin plans to hang around defensively and hope for the best.
"We'll try to keep them from scoring early and maybe we can punch something in late," he said.
An even larger task for Griffin will be keeping his girls focused with prom scheduled for Saturday night.
"Getting high school girls focused the day before prom is hard enough," he said. "It will be even harder if we play Saturday."