The Lady Bears Varsity Soccer team took advantage of the long weekend and took their talents to Jekyll Island to compete in the Tournament of Champions. They competed in three matches in two days with play kicking off Friday evening (March 11) against defending State champions, St. Pius X.
In the opener, the Lady Bears competed well but were under heavy pressure from the opening whistle. Notwithstanding the pressure, the Lady Bears held up well and went to halftime tied 0-0, behind some stellar goalkeeping by Reagan Dunwoodie. The second half resumed where the first left off and the Golden Lions from St. Pius eventually opened the scoring when they capitalized on a giveaway deep into Lady Bear territory for the score. They quickly extended their lead to 3-0 before the Lady Bears settled back down. It has to be said that the Lady Bears created several high quality scoring chances of their own but were unlucky and unable to capitalize on them. The game ended with the final score 3-0, in favor of St. Pius.
After a team meal and a short night's sleep, the Lady Bears were back at it for a 9.00am kickoff on Saturday, March 12th against Aquinas High School (Augusta, Georgia). The Lady Bears dominated the action from end to end, remaining calm in the face of physical play by their opponent, scoring two early goals (Natalia Garcia and Natalia Tovar), leading 2-0 at halftime and then extending their lead to the eventual final of 5-0 on second half goals by Hannah Behner (who calmly finished after receiving a nifty through ball played by Amy Pollmann), Mary Koch and Amanda Feely.
After another quick team meal (during which the girls enjoyed a slide show from the first match of the day), the girls headed back to the fields for a 2.00pm kickoff against Region 3, Class AAAAA Glynn Academy (Brunswick, Georgia). The Lady Bears opened the game impressively moving the ball around the field and creating steady pressure on the Glynn Academy defense. They again generated two early goals – the first headed in by Mary Koch off of a corner kick taken by Carly Shayne and the second scored by Charlotte Teeter who powered a beautiful shot past the Glynn Academy keeper from the corner of the 18-yeard box. Shortly before halftime, Glynn Academy cut the lead to one when they managed to score off of a scramble in the box that followed a Glynn Academy corner kick. The game went to halftime with the Lady Bears leading 2-1. Glynn Academy appeared to have re-grouped at halftime and came out for the second half better organized and more physical, which resulted in a more balanced match for much of the second half before the Lady Bears notched a third goal to put the game away with 10 minutes left to play when Allyson Curl easily tucked in a rebound off of a Charlotte Teeter shot that was stopped (temporarily) by the Glynn Academy keeper.
The Lady Bears move into the heart of their region schedule over the next several weeks.
Upcoming matches are against Wesleyan on Tuesday, March 15 (at Wesleyan, kickoff at 6.00pm), followed by important regional matchups against Sprayberry on Friday, March 18 (at Cambridge, kickoff at 7.55pm) and against Forsyth Central on Tuesday, March 22 (at Forsyth Central, kickoff at 5.55pm).
Go Bears!