Prep Soccer: Mountaineers, Colts advance in 3A state tournament

Published 10:27 pm Friday, May 1, 2015

North Murray High School’s boys soccer team had to overcome some adversity along the way, but a tremendous second half led the Mountaineers to a 4-1 home win over Pepperell in Friday’s first round of the Class 3A state playoffs.

The Mountaineers (15-3), Region 6-3A’s No. 2 seed, advance to play the winner of the first-round match between Atlanta’s Westminster, Region 4-3A’s No. 1 seed and the top team in the eurosportscoreboard.com Class 3A ranking, and Augusta’s Johnson, Region 3-3A’s No. 4 seed. North Murray would travel to Westminster but host Johnson in Wednesday’s second round.

After an already lackluster first half was compounded by a North Murray player receiving a red card 25 minutes into the game — North Murray coach Matt Chambers declined to name the player who was ejected from the game — the Mountaineers regrouped in the second half with four goals.

“It was a good game. Definitely a tale of two halves,” Chambers said. “We came out playing very poor. Then we got a red card and had to play with 10 men the rest of the way. But we scored very quickly in the second half, and that opened us up and we kept it going.”

Manuel Palacios scored the first goal on an assist by Javier Alfaro, who then scored the second goal a few minutes later. Julio Chavez scored each of the final two goals on assists from Jason Trejo and Tino Garcia.

Chambers credited his team’s second half performance to tremendous efforts in the middle of the field, particularly in continuing to cover and play well defensively despite having fewer players.

“I thought we would be worse off (defensively), but we probably had possession 75 to 80 percent of the time in the second half,” Chambers said. “Jason was all over the field. Julio did a great job playing center midfield defensively and then pushed up when he could. Our passing was spot on and we just really played great soccer. It was beautiful.”

Chambers believes his team will be motivated by Friday’s match going forward.

“With them being a young team, I think they needed to come through this adversity,” Chambers said. “They saw what happens when their heart isn’t in it. And then in the second half they saw what they can do no matter what the obstacles are. This game gave us belief in ourselves.”

Pepperell (8-8-1) was Region 5-3A’s No. 3 seed.

• Coahulla Creek 7, Central-Carroll 0: The Colts (13-6), Region 6-3A’s No. 3 seed, went on the road and got a dominating victory in the first round of Class 3A state playoffs.

Coahulla Creek will travel to play Glenn Hills, Region 3-3A’s No. 1 seed, in Wednesday’s second round.

The Colts built a 3-0 lead in the first half on goals by Baley Jones, Adrian Rodriguez and an own goal by Central. In the second half, Martin Garcia scored two goals, while Ozzy Pintor and Allen Cruz each added one.

Missael Fraire finished with two assists, while Oscar Andres and Rodriguez each had one.

Central hit the post in its only shot on goal, while the Colts had 19 shots, Coahulla Creek coach Eric Parker said.

Going into the match, Parker had identified the performance of his midfielders as a key for success. He felt their performance was the difference Friday.

“Our passing was very good,” Parker said. “We did a great job with our one-touches and the forwards did a great job of getting the ball off their foot quickly, but the difference was our ability to control the midfield. The defense did a great job, but their job was made a lot easier by us doing a great job winning the ball in the midfield.”

Central (6-7) was Region 5-3A’s No. 2 seed.