By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Seventeen shutouts in 25 matches.

Salisbury’s Finnegan Avery, the Post’s Rowan County Goalkeeper of the Year, couldn’t have had a much better junior season.

There were five other matches in which he allowed one goal. In one of the two matches in which he surrendered two goals, both were on PKs. He allowed 13 goals all season.

Salisbury head coach Matt Parrish figures Avery has been a star since the second half of his sophomore season.

“He came into his own the latter half of 2023, particularly in our four playoff games,” Parrish said. “His effort against Pine Lake Prep in the third round was one of those stellar man-of-the-match performances.”

Avery hasn’t looked back.

Avery is an athlete, a runner, good at 800 meters or anything longer. Most of his competitive energy during a calendar year is actually spent on the track. He competes in indoor track and outdoor track for the Hornets. Then he runs summer AAU track, competing for the Next Generation Academy’s new team. He qualified for the Junior Olympics last summer.

“When I take a break from running, it’s in the fall, and that’s when I play soccer,” Avery said. “Fall is also cross country season, so all the other distance runners are training while I’m not training.”

He still was able to take a few hours off from soccer and finished 12th in the Central Carolina Conference cross country championships. He made the all-conference team.

Avery remembers being introduced to soccer at an early age at Catawba camps.

Despite his ability to run, he had gravitated to the goalkeeping position while he was still at Salisbury Academy.

“I think there is more pressure on the goalkeeper than any other player, but that’s what I liked about the position,” Avery said. “I’ve always used that pressure as motivation. You’ve always got the chance to swing the momentum for your team by making that big save. You just have to have confidence in yourself that you can make it.”

When Avery arrived at Salisbury as a freshman, he wasn’t an immediate starter, but he did get varsity game action, and he was ready for full-time duty by the time he was a sophomore. The 2023 season was mostly a breeze for him. Salisbury had a dominant team. The Hornets (23-1-2) outscored opponents 97-14.

While Salisbury still won often this season, the Hornets had far less experience and didn’t have many easy matches. There were four, tense 1-0 grinders, including a Thomasville match, where Avery turned away several point-blank shots and had the assist on Salisbury’s only goal.

Avery believes the best save he made all season was in a 1-0 win at North Rowan.

“That one stood out for me because it was to my weaker side, my left side,” Avery said. “I made a dive and was able to tip it wide. After I made that save, I was in shock.”

Parrish watched him do it night after night. There wasn’t a lot of margin for error for a team that had lost much of its goal-scoring punch.

“This season saw a monumental increase in both responsibilities and expectations for Finn,” Parrish said. “He met and exceeded those expectations early and often. Three of our four guys in the back were new and had to be replaced by comparatively inexperienced players. That meant more mistakes and that meant more miscommunications. That ultimately meant more shots on goal against us and more work for Finn. He passed test after test.”

Avery didn’t mind the work. Saves gave him a chance to show off his much improved punting skills.

Salisbury had a quality 0-0 tie at Concord, the champs of the 3A South Piedmont Conference and a team coached by former Salisbury assistant Taylor Strode.

“I knew Concord’s keeper was very good, and while it wasn’t like it was a personal battle between us, I did know if they scored a goal it probably was going to mean a loss for us,” Avery said. “I was excited to play that one. It was a good tie, one of our best team games. Everyone was locked in.”

There weren’t many bad moments for Avery and the Hornets, but the shakiest game, by far, was a 4-0 loss to East Davidson late in the season that meant Salisbury had to share the regular-season CCC title.

But in a playoff seeding game 24 hours later at neutral West Davidson, Salisbury bounced back to shut out East Davidson 2-0.

“Well, we got one of those good talks from Coach Parrish,” Avery said. “We took case of business.”

The season ended for the Hornets with a 1-0 loss to Bandys in the first round of the 2A playoffs. One of those miscommunications in the back cost them a goal. But it was an unexpectedly good season.

Avery made All-Central Carolina Conference and was second team All-Region.

“I’m tougher on Finn than on anyone because we need a tough keeper,” Parrish said. “He’s got to be as tough mentally as he is physically. He’s got to be able to forget a mistake and move on.”

Next season there should be even fewer mistakes for Avery and the Hornets.

For now his focus is on indoor track where he’s competing in the 4×800, the 1000 meters, the 1500 meters and the 3200 meters.

 

 

 

 

finn has become that keeper it has been a long time since ive seen a player improved as quickly and a

desrves a ton of credei forthe year we had we four iuppss on the roster.