Jackets, Phoenix twinbill Thursday
For the second time in three weeks, the Gordon County soccer community is in for a real treat.
That’s because for the second time in three weeks, two of the county high schools will square off against each other when the Calhoun boys and girls teams host their Sonoraville counterparts in a doubleheader, starting 5 p.m. Thursday on the Yellow Jackets’ turf. (The boys teams will play each other in the nightcap with the kick off scheduled for 7 p.m.)
All four teams have had an eventful first couple of weeks to their seasons, with the Calhoun boys and girls and the Sonoraville girls team already having two victories to start this week while the Phoenix boys have also gotten into the win column.
For the Calhoun boys, they enter the game looking to snap a two-game losing streak after they began the year with the two-game winning streak.
They have played three of the best teams in Northwest Georgia so far this season in the form of Gordon Central, Coahulla Creek, and defending 4A state champion Southwest Whitfield and the matches against Southwest Whitfield and Coahulla
Creek came last week and were the first losses of the year.
And the SE Whitfield Raiders, which are off to a 5-0 start after winning 23 games last year, look like a team that has a definite chance to repeat as state champions, racking up seven goals against a Calhoun group that had surrendered just two goals in its first two games and had pitched a shutout in beating Gordon Central.
The Jackets were in the game at halftime, trailing just 2-0 before the home team broke the game open with five goals in the second half
while Calhoun got on the board with its lone score, but couldn’t narrow the gap.
On Thursday, the Yellow Jackets played another very good team in Coahulla Creek and dropped a 2-1 decision to the Colts.
The Creek scored in the first half for the game’s only goal and then each team had a goal in the second half.
So head coach Tino Hernandez’s squad is looking to get back on track and for more nights like the one they had before the loss to Southeast Whitfield when they scored five times and defeated Lafayette, 5-2.
In that game, sophomore striker Alex Delgado scored twice while senior forward Alexis Villalobos, sophomore midfielder Adrian Villalobos, and junior Cris Garduno each had a goal, showing the team just what kind of offensive hardware they have.
And while the record may say they have split their first four games, they nabbed just 15 goals last year in 16 games and this year, they already have eight scores.
For the Sonoraville boys, they have two matches this week having faced Dawson County at home on Tuesday night before they play at neighboring Calhoun. (Details of that SonoravilleDawson County game were not available at press time).
Early on for the Phoenix, it has been feast-orfamine in their four outings with one easy win and three losses in which they were outscored 17-1.
But the Phoenix have also been playing bigger schools and Calhoun will be the third Region 7-5A they have played in the first two weeks of the season. Last week, they were on the road at Cass and at Woodland and fell 5-0 to Cass and 7-1 to the Wildcats.
Their other loss was a 5-0 defeat to Christian Heritage, but their one win was a most-impressive 6-0 victory over Adairsville in
Bartow County in their second game of the season.
The Big Red are preparing to compete in a very strong 7-4A district that features defending 4A state champion Southeast Whitfield and 4A defending state runner up Northwest Whitfield after they met last year in the finals.
Three of the six teams in the 7-4A are off to fast starts this Winter and everyone but Sonoraville goes into this week with a winning record. After the Raiders’ 5-0 mark, Central stands 4-0 while Cedartown is 3-O and Heritage and Northwest Whitfield are both 2-1-1.
Both Calhoun and Sonoraville are looking to make the postseason again after getting there last year and will be using the match against each otehr to continue to get ready for the region games that begin next week for Calhoun when they take on Dalton.
On the girls side, both Calhoun and Sonoraville are off to good starts with two wins in their first three games going into this week.
Both teams are very young with Sonoraville having just three seniors on its roster of nearly 20 players while Calhoun is starting five freshmen.
Both teams have been explosive offensively through the first fortnight of the year, with Calhoun having scored 17 goals in its first three games and Sonoraville had racked up 11.
The Yellow Jackets tallied 10 of those goals in a 10-1
win triumph over LaFayette. Sonorvaille scored six times in its season-opening 6-3 win over Pepperell and had four last week in a 4-1 road win over Cass. The Lady Phoenix’s only defeat was a 2-1 setback at Adairsville a week ago Friday.
Sophmore striker Charity Perez has been a onewoman show offensively for the Phoenix with seven goals already or more than two per game. Junior forward Alexa Vigil has also scored two times for the school on Highway 53.
The Calhoun girls will come in looking to put it’s most recent game, which was a 5-0 loss to Southeast Whitfield behind them.
Head coach Taylor Sumrall has gotten a nice contribution from a lot of players early on in the scoring department.
In that 10-goal onslaught against LaFayette, Mia Stokes and Kaylie Holmes had two goals apiece while Kiara Fernandez, Allie Chase, Loren Prine, Isa Rivera, Sofia Camp, and Jenna Brannon each knocked in one.
The team will also end a nine-day layoff with this game as they have not played since a week ago Tuesday evening.
Off the field, senior AllRegion goalie Tatum Bellinger made her future plans official when last week, surrounded by family friends and coaches, she signed her college scholarship to play at Shorter University.