Tift sweep Colquitt County in soccer

Published 10:55 pm Wednesday, March 15, 2006

MOULTRIE — The Tift County girls soccer team continued its recent dominance of Colquitt County on Wednesday, blanking the Lady Packers 6-0 at Mack Tharpe Stadium at Tom White Field in a battle of the last two Region 1-AAAAA undefeated teams.

The Tift County boys completed the sweep by outscoring the Packers 3-0 in penalty kicks after the game was deadlocked 1-1 after regulation and two overtime periods.

Tift blanked Colquitt County 6-0 and 5-0 last season, but the the Lady Packers took an eight-game winning streak into Wednesday’s match and hoped to reverse the recent trend.

It didn’t happen.

Tift County got two goals each from Maggie Crawley and Kendall Couch and single goals from Molly Kirkland and Ronni Smith to take over sole possession of first place in the region.

Freshman goalkeeper Rebecca Johnson turned in the fifth shutout of the season for Tift County.

The Lady Devils are now 7-0 overall and 4-0 in the region.

Colquitt’s girls, who had won eight in a row since a season-opening 3-1 loss to Warner Robins, fall to 8-2 and 3-1 in the region.

The Tift County boys’ victory was their first in the region, raising their record to 1-3. The Blue Devils are 2-6-1 overall.

The Packers scored first in the first half on a goal by Jesus Mundo.

Tift County tied the match on a goal by Jim Murray in the second half. Neither team generated much offense in either overtime period.

But the Packers were unable to make a penalty kick, and Tift County got one each from Jose Olate, Murray and Matthew Ruberly.

“We just couldn’t find a way to put one in,” said Packers coach Randall Balch.

The Packers have just today to rest before another crucial region meeting at Valdosta on Friday.

“Our guys haven’t laid down yet,” Balch said. “They’ve been through a lot of adversity, but they haven’t given up.

“We played as smart as we could tonight, but we just had a couple breakdowns.”

The Packers fall to 5-5 overall and 2-2 in the region.

Email newsletter signup

Most Popular