SOCCER ROUNDUP: Dublin, East Laurens can’t shake hard luck; Win streaks resume for Trinity girls, West Laurens boys

ACE’s soccer teams swept East Laurens, and also the region 2-High A championships, as they rolled to a pair of wins on their home field last Thursday. 

John Thang came away with the Falcons’ only goal from the long night in Macon late in the second half of the boys’ game. The rest of it was all Gryphons, whose girls prevailed in a 9-0 shutout to clinch their sixth region crown in a row, and boys by a final of 5-1 to also lock up the top spot by virtue of a tiebreaking win over Dodge County. 

The matches, to wrap up the pre-spring break portion of the schedule, were East’s last of region play. 

The Falcons will play two more to finish out the regular season next week, as they host Fitzgerald on Tuesday and travel to take on Vidalia Thursday. 

Top scorer Bailey Loosier had four of ACE’s nine goals, each assisted by Lily Bivins, on the girls’ side of the twin bill. But stealing the show with an unusual hat trick for the Gryphons was defender Scout Jones, who got to play a good bit more than usual on the forward half of midfield due to the ball scarcely crossing to the other side in the game’s last 50 minutes. 

East Laurens (8-8, 5-3 region 2-High A) played some determined defense early on, with Loosier’s first at about the 30-minute mark the only shot to get by goalkeeper Deanna Lowther before an ACE offensive blitz that would add three more goals in the last 12. 

Edy Powell and Kate Thomason found the net, and Loosier got her second, to put the Gryphons up 4-0 on the way to intermission. And their play continued on an even steeper downhill tilt coming back as Loosier picked up two more to go with the three of Jones, and the Lady Falcons were mostly prevented from so much as organizing a counterattack in the other direction. 

The East Laurens boys (9-6, 4-3 region) had a closer one get out of reach thanks to a hat trick by Sohan Patel that accounted for the first three of ACE’s five goals. 

All for the Gryphons except one was unanswered as Patel scored from the field roughly seven minutes in, then via penalty kick just a few minutes later. 

The Falcons organized some scoring opportunities, but couldn’t break through, as ACE settled back into a defensive posture through the half. 

But Patel was back at it again minutes into the second to put the Gryphons on top by a commanding 3-0 score, and a fourth goal by Louis Harrington added to their edge with 20 minutes left. 

Thang’s score came directly, but that’d be it for the visitors in a mostly uneventful finish to the match, with ACE’s Jackson Hanke grabbing a goal to finish up the night in the last few minutes. 

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Dublin’s soccer teams dropped a few tough ones last week as they were swept by Bleckley County, on a Tuesday trip for some league action in Cochran, and Claxton, which visited the Shamrock Bowl for a non-region set Friday afternoon. 

The Lady Irish (4-10, 2-5 region 2-High A) were shut by 5-0 scores in both. 

Braylee Cobb had four of the Royals’ five goals on Tuesday, with goalkeeper Jana Tomlin securing a couple of saves to help keep Dublin off the board. 

The Tigers scored a couple in the first half before a second-half stalemate led to a salvo of three in the last 12 minutes that broke Friday’s match completely open. 

The Irish boys (3-8, 1-5 region) fell by a single goal each night. Tuesday’s difference was a penalty kick by Bleckley’s Greyson Arnold, which followed an earlier goal by Harrison Rogers to solidify the Royals’ 2-1 result. 

Oscar Morales hit a high, floating shot from a good distance out with 2:37 left to give Claxton the final 4-3 edge in Friday’s exciting finish.

There was a lot of action toward the close, but a little of it early as well for Dublin, which drew first blood on a penalty kick by Ricardo Alvarado no more than three minutes into the match. 

That’d end up as the only goal of an otherwise scoreless first half. But things picked up as Claxton’s Agustin Saucedo evened the count at 1 on a long assist from Morales with 24 minutes left in the match. 

The Irish answered minutes later with a fast-break goal from an unidentified different player who seemed to be wearing the No. 15 of Alvarado. The Tigers scratched right back as Woodley Jean scored off a corner kick to make it 2-2 with a little more than 20 minutes to play. 

Claxton went in front for the first time with 12 remaining as Moises Maldonado threaded one through traffic on a right-footed shot for a lead of 3-2. 

Moments later, Dublin scored again off a throw-in from the sideline, as Urick Andrews took control of the ball amid a pack of defenders and did his magic, dribbling toward the net to poke one home and equalize at 3-3. 

The Irish, with time of the essence, scrambled for a response to the Tigers’ last as Andrews nearly scored on an attack with two minutes to go. But Claxton’s Josue Ramos dove desperately to take the ball right off his foot for a ninth and final save of the night, and no further opportunities for Dublin would unfold. 

The Irish are scheduled to complete their regular season at Vidalia next Tuesday. 

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Last week’s homestand for West Laurens had a couple of setbacks on one side of the coin, but a continuation of its late-season surge on the other, as the Raiders hosted the Academy of Richmond County and Stratford on Tuesday and Thursday. 

The Lady Raiders (10-7, 8-4 region 4-AAA) were shut out 2-0 by the Musketeers, and 6-0 by the Eagles. 

Tuesday, goals in the respective halves by ARC’s Carson Murphy and Caitlyn Rivers backed a clean sheet for ARC’s Eusteen Keso in the net. 

They’d be overpowered again in Thursday’s test against GIAA region champ Stratford, which slowly piled on after an early goal to pull away. 

The West Laurens boys, meanwhile, remained unbeaten in a couple more grinders. They won 2-0 to move within one more win of clinching region 4-AAA Tuesday, then edged the Eagles 10-9 in an extended penalty kick shootout to decide Thursday’s thriller that came to a 2-2 deadlock in regulation.  

The fifth-ranked Raiders (17-0, 12-0 region) can lock themselves into first place in either of their two remaining games against Hephzibah (April 14) or at Aquinas (April 16). 

Tuesday’s match was scoreless for about 60 minutes before West Laurens hit the scoreboard with 22 minutes left on a Jack Yearwood penalty kick. 

He took a winding approach to the ball, but got it just inside the right post just off the fingertips of a diving ARC keeper. 

The Raiders’ second goal, to put the win away with just over 12 minutes to go, was a display of excellent touch as the ball got thrust ahead, and sent from Alex Derochie down to Payton Everly for a chance near the left post that drew the keeper out in an effort to cut the ball off before a shot. 

He got off a sideways spinner with some heavy English that took its time trickling toward an open net, but snuck just inside the right corner to make it 2-0. 

Thursday’s first with 11 left in the first half gave West Laurens an early 1-0 lead on Stratford, as Bryson Morgan threw into traffic for Dalton Oxford, who got a piece of the ball just before the keeper to poke the ball in from a few yards in front. 

The Raiders extended their lead to a couple goals on Yearwood’s 50-ish yard free kick – a high, majestic ball that glanced in off the hands of a leaping goalie – with about five minutes remaining before halftime. 

Stratford, however, would score twice in the second 40 minutes to reverse the score to an even 2-apiece, picking up a first with about 28 left on the clock, and the second on a similar bounding free kick into the box with only two minutes to spare that Morris Butler finished up for the equalizer. 

The match, skipping 20 minutes of overtime that is only mandated in region games, went straight to penalties. And neither team blinked over 15 rounds before an Eagle miss allowed West Laurens to take the sudden victory on a make by Oxford that preserved its unbeaten record, and handed Stratford its first loss. 

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The Trinity Lady Crusaders, after having their perfect match and defensive record spoiled by a 2-1 loss at West Laurens on March 20, got right back into their groove on a three-match shutout streak leading into spring break. 

They reeled off a 9-0 win over Vidalia Heritage on March 24, then blanked Gatewood 4-0 on March 30 before edging FPCA 3-0 in the closest of the bunch on April 2 to improve to 9-1 (7-0 region 6-AA). 

Addie Kendrick, Bristol Batchelor and Kaylee Gille scored twice each, with Maddy George, Abby Gillis and Brinley Vinson hitting home once apiece, in the first at Vidalia Heritage. 

George had a pair of goals, with Kendrick and Mason Brantley both adding one, in the win over Gatewood. 

Ella Kendrick picked up the first of her career for one of last Thursday’s three against Gatewood, with Addie and Gille rounding things out. 

Trinity’s boys (6-2-1, 5-0 region) whacked VHA 10-0 with the help of a Jagger George hat trick, plus two assists. Josh Mosley, Brooks Barrs and Dash Preston also added to the effort with two apiece, and Parker Smith added one, to bring hte match to an end a couple minutes shy of full time. 

Goalkeeper Austin Caraway also had saves on all six of the Eagles’ shots on goal. The Crusaders wrangled a 2-1 win at FPCA last Thursday, scoring once in the second half, after trading a goal with the Highlanders’ Mark Burton in the opening half, to pull it out. 

Both teams are scheduled to resume play on Monday, April 13 at Robert Toombs.