SOCCER ROUNDUP: Kendrick, George, Mosley lead Trinity’s big week; West Laurens teams keep rolling; Exciting wins for East over WACO, Dublin

Trinity’s top shooters had a field day, or two, as its active week of soccer continued with matches last Tuesday and Thursday. 

Addie Kendrick recorded hat tricks in both a 4-0 victory over Robert Toombs, then another 7-0 shutout of Windsor, as the Lady Crusaders remained undefeated and unscored-on. 

For the Trinity boys, it was Jagger George and Josh Mosley who combined for eight over a win, 10-2 Tuesday over RTCA, and a loss at Bulloch, 3-1, Thursday. 

Region matches with Covenant, Tuesday at home, and at West Laurens, in another crosstown friendly Friday night at The SHU, are coming up this week for the Crusaders. 

Kendrick scored twice from the field and once at the line for three of the girls’ four Tuesday against RTCA. 

A ball found her with a step on all but one defender, which she crossed up near the top of the box, on a shot to open the scoring roughly 12 minutes in. Her shot at a second was deflected back by the keeper, but Bristol Batchelor was on the spot to knock it back in for a 2-0 lead at the break. 

The second half was quiet until Reese Cobb got cut down in the box to set up a Kendrick penalty kick just beneath the 15-minute mark, and the senior stroked it to extend the lead to 3-0. She added the final goal on a long, arcing shot from the left short corner off an assist from Abby Gillis, who hit tapped Kendrick’s throw-in back her direction with a little under four minutes to go. 

She duplicated the feat on Thursday, with three teammates also getting in on the action, as Trinity (5-0, 4-0 region 6-AA) produced a carbon copy of its season-opening result from 10 days earlier in Macon. 

Kendrick was once again selected to take the PK as Maddy George got leveled from behind by a defender near the left post, and connected on a shot into the left corner of the net within only three minutes of the opening kick. 

She had one bang off the crossbar before getting dumped away by Windsor defenders, but George took control of a quick throw back in for a shot that broke the plane to make it 2-0. 

Chloe Rozier scored off a rebound for a third goal near the 23-minute mark, and a fourth went on the board courtesy of Windsor as one of its back-liners inadvertently knocked home a Trinity cross with the shoulder a minute or two later. 

Kendrick got her second off of Cobb’s assist to expand the lead to 5-0 with just 22 seconds remaining in the half, then completed the back-to-back hat trick on a booming shot not seven minutes into the next. 

It was scoreless the rest of the way until Rozier crossed one softly to Alligood in perfect timing at the end of a fast-break for the pop-up shot that curled home to complete the scoring with 2:15 left in the match. 

The Trinity boys (3-1-1, 2-0 region) outscored the opposing Crusaders 5-1 in each half Tuesday night, with Jag George scoring four times, and Mosley logging three goals and assists. 

Brooks Barrs, Will Foskey and Thomas Polhill added one each to the tally, while goalkeeper Graham Forth saved two of RTCA’s four shots going the other way. Hayden Meeks scored both goals for the visitors. 

Thursday’s trip to Statesboro saw the Crusaders’ first loss of the season, though George hit a free kick at the end of the first half to narrow an early Bulloch lead to 2-1. 

Trinity couldn’t come up with a breakthrough on any of its chances to even the count down the stretch, and a Gator goal with 18 minutes remaining put it away. 

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The No. 6-ranked West Laurens boys kept their unbeaten streak alive in three tight region matches last week. The first was a 3-1 victory over Aquinas Tuesday. The Raiders (11-0, 8-0 region 4-AAA) went on to edge Richmond Academy 1-0 on Thursday in Augusta, and pushed past a tough-to-shake Westside Augusta squad Friday, 2-0. 

Meanwhile, the eighth-ranked Lady Raiders (6-4, 5-2 region) split their two official matches, gaining a scoreless win over Aquinas via penalty kick shootout to start the week, but falling to finish it up in a 2-0 result at ARC. 

They’d also roll to an exhibition win over a shorthanded Westside to open Friday’s home set. 

The teams’ rematches at Aquinas scheduled for Monday were postponed due to weather, but both were slated to return to the field.Tuesday in Macon against Howard, before Friday’s home tilt with Trinity. 

The boys’ eventual edge in the Tuesday-nighter owed to a couple of late-first half goals, a first with just less than 15 minutes to go as Judd Walker hurled a long throw from the corner to the back post, where Jack Yearwood jabbed it in on a reclining shot. 

Alex Derochie placed one perfectly on a long ball down the near side that found Payton Everly for another on a quick breakaway about three minutes later. It was unclear exactly how he managed to make clean contact with the ball from around an Aquinas defender, and the Irish goalkeeper as both also attempted to get ahold of it off a high bounce about 20 yards out. But the apparent right-footer took off toward the empty goal and bounded in. 

A second Everly strike made it 3-0 with just under 25 minutes to go in the second half, as Clark Nelson found him with a perfect assist from near midfield. 

Aquinas’ Joaquin Pereira scored the only opposing goal on a left-footed shot with just under 15 left. 

A Yearwood penalty kick was the difference in a stalemate with ARC Thursday night. 

That trend also applied to a scoreless first half of the Raiders’ Friday matchup with an athletic Westside squad. But they broke through in similar fashion to Tuesday, as Walker lobbed a long throw for the header of Derochie to get them on the board with 33 minutes left to play. 

West Laurens got some insurance as Minato Okubo (a freshman playing his last game with the team before a planned move overseas this week) converted an assist from Yearwood with just under 80 seconds left. 

There was no decision through 80 minutes of regulation, nor 20 more of overtime, as the Lady Raiders battled Aquinas to a scoreless deadlock on Tuesday. 

But the goal got plenty of action as the two teams hit the mark on most of their shots in a PK shootout that went six rounds for a 5-4 West Laurens victory.  

The Lady Raiders were close to ending it sooner, up 4-2 before a couple of unanswered shots by Aquinas to even it up and force a sudden-death round. 

It was keeper-on-keeper for the deciding set, and West’s Natalie Howell converted before blocking the attempt of Aquinas’ Angelina Johnson for the win. 

Nan Perry and Caitlyn Rivers scored both of Richmond’s goals in the first half for the difference Thursday night. 

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This season has presented the East Laurens girls with a few more challenges than they typically face in what always feels like a seamless process of reloading for a new year. 

On top of losing a handful of seniors who were some of the school’s top all-around athletes, the Lady Falcons have also been forced to play more than half their schedule without three players they expected back who – in a happy inconvenience – were still playing basketball until this week. 

They’ll be glad to have those hoops holdovers – Deanna Lowther (last year’s starting goalkeeper) along with incoming freshmen Alasia Wiggins and Amari Kellam – finally lacing up the cleats and strapping on the shin guards Tuesday to begin a busy week of action. 

East was set to visit Treutlen on Tuesday, then Northeast Wednesday, before wrapping up Friday back at home against Dodge County. Two of its biggest matches of the season follow on March 26 at Bleckley County, and April 2 at ACE Charter. 

The Lady Falcons have taken a few on the chin in an up-and-down start to the spring, but still remain a game off the lead of defending champ ACE in the present standings after sweeping two matches in a key homestand last week after a 3-0 win over Washington County, and a 4-2 overtime victory over Dublin, lifted them back above .500 overall (6-5) and in region play (3-1). 

Junior Maggie Foskey, last year’s leading scorer, had key goals in both wins. 

She got Tuesday’s with WACO started on a shot with less than 12 minutes gone in the first half. Brynne Moody doubled the early lead on a penalty kick with under a minute left before halftime. 

Yessica Lopez, scoring at the 24-minute mark of the second half, added East’s final goal of the night. 

A first of two back-and-forth matches with the Irish Thursday also opened with a Foskey strike, via corner kick with 17 minutes left, though Dublin’s Violet Marion scored out of a fast-break situation to answer six minutes later and tie things up ahead of intermission. 

In the second half, it was Lopez who put the Lady Falcons back up with 28 minutes left, on the second crack at an assist from the edge of the field. But Dublin once again responded in the nick of time, drawing a PK that succeeded to force extra time with 3:41 to go in regulation. 

There was no score in the first 10-minute OT session, but Foskey completed a hat trick with two goals – one straight-up and and another via penalty about a minute apart – to win it for East Laurens in the second.  

The No. 9-ranked Falcon boys (8-3, 4-0 region 2-High A) also added a pair of wins in the home set, Tuesday’s 3-1 over WACO and Thursday’s in dramatic fashion to spoil an Irish upset bid, 3-2, in the closing seconds of regulation. 

John Thang had two of their three goals – a first on the assist of Lerri Lopez with 21 minutes left in the opening half – Tuesday against the Golden Hawks. 

WACO would even the score in about five minutes, but Thang struck again off a corner set piece with 2:52 left to stake East Laurens to a 2-1 halftime lead. 

The Falcons got second-half insurance from Jamari Harvey on a goal with 14 minutes to go, as their defense prevented the Hawks from scoring again. 

Dublin’s hungry squad, winless in its first three region matches, set the pace in Thursday’s showdown with a first strike roughly 10 minutes in. 

Lerri Lopez leveled the match at 1-1 on a penalty kick with 11:37 to play in the first, but the Irish would go up again on a goal with 21 minutes left as a ball got loose near midfield and turned into a runout. 

Dublin hung onto that lead, and was only two minutes from the region win column – not to mention a huge boost of confidence and momentum – when East pulled off another of its signature late-match reversals. 

An equalizing goal came from Jaden Wright with just 1:58 left on the clock. With overtime looming, a final Falcon chance unfolded as a ball on the far side got played wide, and a whistle sent Lopez to the line for a PK to win it. 

Both of Dublin’s squads, the Lady Irish 3-5 (2-3 region) and boys (1-5, 0-4 region) lost 4-1 at Dodge County on Tuesday. 

The Irish are scheduled to visit Swainsboro Tuesday in this week’s only match.