SOCCER: East Laurens blanked by Bremen, Fitzgerald in first round

Tuesday and Wednesday were each long nights for East Laurens’ soccer teams, which came up on the wrong end of shutouts in the first round of the GHSA playoffs. 

Doubly so for the Lady Falcons (8-11, 5-3 region 2-High A) when you add a more than three-hour ride to and from Bremen to the roughly 76 minutes of match time that were dominated by the 7th seeded Blue Devils, a winner 10-0. 

Lorin Rice scored four times to pace an array of frequent scorers, while Daylee and Dalanie Sheets added a pair of goals each to the tally, which had Bremen in front 7-0 by halftime. 

The home team backed off the throttle a bit out of halftime, but failed to allow an East Laurens score before ending the match with its 10th a few minutes before full time. 

10th seed Bleckley County, a winner over Dade County in round 1, will visit Bremen next week. 

The Eastside boys fell to Dodge County by similar margins as it went to Eastman for a rematch of a regular-season loss to the Indians that had only a goal’s difference. 

The Falcons, who scored just once to break serve against Dodge on their own home field March 20, trailed only 1-0 through a half of Wednesday’s battle. 

But the Indians struck three times down the stretch to add on, and pull away to the 4-0 win. They advance to challenge Armuchee in the second round as East Laurens finishes 9-9 overall (4-3 region).