GCHS, SHS both look for strong finishes
The high school soccer season is in its final couple of weeks of play.
And both Gordon Central and Sonoraville are hoping for a strong finish.
A year ago this time, Gordon Central was chasing another Region 7-2A championship and a top seed going into the GHSA 2A playoffs.
But this year, while they are still in the 7-2A, they have a few new playmates and find themselves in a real battle to reach the postseason.
For Sonoraville, the Phoenix are now in what may be the strongest 4A Region in the land with the two teams — Southwest Whitfield County and Northwest Whitfield County — that played in last year’s GHSA state championship game in their league and they have had some some growing pains.
For Gordon Central, the group and the head coach that took them to the heights they reached the past couple of seasons are no longer around, but the hope the team can continue to be one of the top programs in the state is something they’re working hard at.
After not losing a Region game the past two seasons, the team began this winter with three consecutive losses, but since then, they seem to have found their mojo and have won three consecutive games.
And that includes a sweep of Fannin County last week after their game against the Rebels back on Feb. 16 was not play as originally scheduled.
The Warriors began the league docket with a 1-0 setback to Murray County and then fell to Model, 4-0, to slide to 0-2 in the Region, a spot they haven’t been in in a few years. They were then shut out for a third straight league game with a 5-0 loss to Model, but have turned it around since then.
Last week, they silenced Fannin County twice, throwing a wrench in the Rebels’ playoffs with first a 4-0 win to get back into the 7-2A playoff picture.
They followed that up with a 3-0 victory over Fannin County on the road and then Tuesday night, they collected their biggest Region win so far with a 10-1 blindsiding of Haralson County.
Going into this week, North Murray is the 7-2A undefeated leader and no one had scored a point against them in those seven games. In the meantime, they have scored 34 points, meaning the Mountaineers have been winning by an average of 5-0 every time they play a league match.
They have been pushed two times though in those seven matches and one of those tough-and-tight-ones was a 1-0 win over Gordon Central. The teams were scoreless until the Mountaineers scored the game’s only goal in the second half.
Model started this week alone in second place in the Region with a 5-1 record with their only loss a 2-0 decision to North Murray. That game was scoreless at halftime before a pair of second-half goals spurred the Mountaineers to the win.
Gordon Central and North Murray are then tied for third place with 3-3 marks and for the Warriors, they still have a chance to climb with games to be played against each of those teams om front of them.
After that, Fannin County was in contention and still definitely has a chance, but the Rebels took a big hit when Gordon Central swept them last week. They were 2-2 at the time in the Region but are now 2-5 and still have to play everyone ahead of them except the Warriors one more.
Rockmart, which lost six out of its first seven games, and Haralson County, which was still searching for its first victory in its first year in the 7-2A, were pretty much looking at playing the spoiler role.
Besides being the last unbeaten team in the Region, North Murray has the best overall record of
any of the teams, standing 8-1 on the season and Model, which was 7-3-1 entering this weekend’s action, had the second best. They were the only two teams with a mark above .500.
For Sonoraville, the Phoenix are now into their Region 7-4A games and looking for growth and to be competitive in what is likely one of the strongest regions in the state.
Last year, three of the four teams from the 7-4A that made the GHSA state soccer playoffs got to the Elite Eight and all four won their first round matches to make it to the Sweet 16.
And those three teams that got at least to the quarterfinals — defending state champion Southeast Whitfield County and defending state runner-up Northwest Whitfield County along with Elite Eight representative Cedartown — all made amazing playoffs and to date, five of the six teams in the Region have winning records this year.
Southeast Whitfield pretty much picked up this year where they left off last year, winning 10 of their first 12 games and standing 101-1 overall to start this week. The Raiders allowed just nine goals in those 11 matches and they look like once again they will be in the mix for another state championship.
Southeast’s only loss was a 2-0 setback to Dalton, which won the 6A state title two years ago and is currently leading Region 7-5A, which Calhoun plays in.
And for the first time since they played to win it all last April, Southeast Whitfield and Northwest Whitfield met in their Region encounter Thursday night in a battle to see who would be the last team still unbeaten in the Region with both clubs coming in 2-0.
Central came into this weekend’s action with a 2-1 record in the league and in third place in the 7-4A, a game ahead of Cedartown, which was 1-2 in the league and alone in fourth place.
Heritage, which did not make the playoffs last year, and Sonoraville were both off to 0-2 Region starts.
The Phoenix lost to Northwest Whitfield and fell to Central by a 5-0 count.
Sonoraville is scheduled to wrap up its league schedule this week on the road when they go to Southeast Whitfield on Tuesday and they travel to Cedartown Thursday. Tuesday’s game is a 7:30 p.m. kickoff and Thursday’s game begins at 7 p.m.
They finish up the regular season the following Tuesday, March 28 when they host Ridgeland.