MOULTRIE – Jimbo Jarvis didn’t like the first half Tuesday. Yes, his Colquitt County High boys soccer team was ahead 1-0 and wasn’t hurting itself with mistakes. But it wasn’t a team the coach really recognized.

Things started to roll in the second half, and the Packers – starting a three-match non-region string with the second half of Region 1-7A contests on the horizon – shut down the visiting Lee County High Trojans 4-0 at Packer Park.

“We finally came alive,” said Jarvis. “It took about 10 minutes (in the second half).”

The first half looked like very basic soccer, a lot of passing, even with the back line involved often as close as midfield. Colquitt offensively was guilty of two offside calls, and three times Jose Moreno tried to head the ball in without any luck.

It was nine minutes into the match that Juan Pascual passed to Moreno for a pass to Paulino Munoz. Munoz fed it back to his passer, but Moreno’s head shot missed the mark.

Only 15 seconds later would Moreno get another opportunity, this one passed off by Emmanuel Rodriguez. This time the Lee goalkeeper was in place for the save.

As the Trojans made a move towards getting the first goal, defenders Will Barber and Wes Smith disrupted things in front of their stellar goalkeeper, Blayton Duncan. Into the second 10 minutes of the half, the Packers received two corner kicks. Moreno, for the third time, made a move with his head only to miss high.

Nearing the halfway mark, Munoz got into a tangle and drew a foul. This would be a free kick about 22 yards away, and ‘Let the keeper see it,’ says the opposing coach. Carlos Landa took the kick without a wall in front, and the keeper made the play.

From the defensive side, Will Barber, George Barber and Smith made key plays. After Smith forced a goal kick, the Packers made the moves to end the scoreless deadlock. The ball went from Munoz to Pedro Luna to Ruben Gonzalez for a rocket-like shot that bounced in with the Lee keeper on his knees (3:53).

The Trojans would miss an equalizer at 2:13 wide, and they prevented any scoring from a corner kick in the final minute.

Duncan, to start the second half, had a save at 37:04. The Packers were then getting shots from Pascual, Munoz, Gonzalez and Landa over the next six minutes plus one more catch from Duncan.

At 24:15, Lee denied Gonzalez after a combination of passes, but they couldn’t stop Moreno from rebounding Gonzalez’s ball later off a post. Landa had made a crossing pass at 22:55, and Moreno upped the lead to 2-0.

Smith continued to make contributions on defense, and at 17:57 the Packers went up 3-0 on Gonzalez’ second goal. He gathered the ball in the box and shot diagonally inside the left post.

The final goal, with 1.6 seconds left, came from Pascual.

LEE GIRLS ROLL

The Lee County High girls soccer team entered Packer Park Tuesday with an undefeated record of 11-0 and didn’t need the full 80 regulation minutes to go to 12-0. It was only a 3-0 match at halftime, but then the Lady Trojans put in point after point to lead 10-0 and end the match with the Lady Packers with 15:23 on the clock.

It was the Colquitt girls who took the first shot of the day in the opening minute. Senior sweeper Addi Yost cleared the ball on one end to her freshman forward Chloe Gould. Lee County, just as stingy on defense as productive on offense, saved Gould’s shot.

The Lady Packers made good efforts on defense with Julia Warnock’s first save in goal at 37:40, and it was a long shot thanks to the marking of Jami Kling. Keri Brown, back in action after sustaining a concussion, and Ragan Harden were also in there disrupting things. The Lady Trojans possessed the ball, but other Colquitt girls like Eva Portillo and Josie Sellers did their jobs as well.

At 29:55, Lee shot high on the rebound of Warnock’s kick save. Lady Packer coaches continued to get defensive stands from Brown, Yost, Alaina Taylor and Ny’Kearian Green off the bench. At 25:28 and 24:43, Warnock made a point-blank saves against running attempts.

However, it was Lee’s dominance of the 50-50 ball that led to the main striker’s dribbling move to force the keeper away from the net. With that move, the Lady Trojans went up 1-0 at 24:12.

Though Kling and Green were able to stop ensuing shots and Warnock was on the ball two times, at 17:51 Lee claimed the 50-50, attacked on the left and connected to lead 2-0.

Colquitt even had some non-goalie saves in the first half, the first by Harden at 16:20. Mary Jacobs also prevented scoring at 14:45. When Lee kicked from more than 40 yards away (9:36), Warnock made a good concentration catch of the bouncing ball.

The lead would go to 3-0 as the Lady Trojans cleared from the opposite side and set up a running attack (7:53).

Warnock provided two more plays in the last two minutes, including a free kick outside the box with 20 seconds to go after a yellow card on the home team.

It was in the second half that Lee was awarded a penalty kick to go ahead 4-0 almost five minutes in. Warnock had one more save before giving way to Jennifer Perez, who also had a save in the half.