MOULTRIE – When these two soccer rivals met for the first time, there were two penalty kick shootouts, one won by each side.

The way things looked in the rematch, held at Packer Park Tuesday, set things up for even more overtime action.

That turned out to not be the case as the visiting Tift County High Lady Devils defeated the Lady Packers 2-1 scoring in the final two minutes of regulation. For Tift County, that was revenge for the shootout loss to the Colquitt girls in Tifton on March 3. For Trey Jones’ Lady Packers, it was the third straight loss in Region 1-7A, dropping them to 1-3 with two league matches remaining.

But Colquitt County’s boys had its revenge on the Blue Devils 3-2, which puts the Packers of coach Jimbo Jarvis even at 2-2 in the region. Both Colquitt and Tift are now tied in the standings, two games behind first place Lowndes.

“It was a tough game, but it’s never easy, Colquitt vs. Tift,” said Jarvis.

The Packers broke a 2-2 tie when Bryan Galardo was fouled at 25:45 of the second half. Jose Moreno took the free kick about 23 yards away at a right angle and got a good bounce.

Colquitt actually played from behind at the outset, for at 31:59 the Blue Devils connected at the right post. It wasn’t long afterwards, though, that the visitors received a yellow card.

The Packers tried lots of passing combinations, Pauline Munoz hitting a post 10 minutes into the half.

Will Barber had a big head block of a Tift free kick of 30 yards, and Juan Pascual was creating turnovers. The biggest dodge but Colquitt, however, was a questioned foul on goalkeeper Brayton Duncan. Tift couldn’t find any shot after the indirect kick in the box.

The Packers came back with a furious attack, Gonzalez the victim of a non-goalie save and Moreno hitting the top bar with his header at 17:25.

Jarvis was also wondering about no foul on Moreno’s big rush with under nine minutes to play. He did get two big plays out of Duncan, and all of that was rewarded in the final six minutes before the half.

Gonzalez’ and Galardo’s work brought on a corner kick at 5:40. Gonzalez had a shot at the goal blocked, but George Barber charged for the rebound and scored the equalizer.

At 3:09, Raymon Garcia stood in the middle of the pitch and connected on a 23-yard rocket to put Colquitt up 2-1 at the half.

Jarvis then saw some flat play to start the new half, and what he warned the team about played out right in front of him. Tift had a player dribble in the middle, shoot and score a tying goal at 33:35.

LADY PACKERS

When the lone goal scorer in the game gets injured on that very play, it doesn’t bode well for future offensive production. That was what Jones and the Colquitt girls faced when midfielder Lexie McDaniel hit the turf after running and shooting in the box at 17:37 of the second half. Already playing with a wrapped up thigh, McDaniel had to be helped off the field and did not return to play.

Goalkeeper Julia Warnock also took some lumps in the match. She stopped a point blank shot from Tift after getting pressure defensive help from Chloe Sumner. At 9:05, Warnock went to the top of the box to block a shot with her body. She then, at 8:12, saved an 18-yarder off the ensuing corner kick as her Lady Packer teammates worked the ball outside.

There were more defensive moments out of Mary Jacobs and Joylinn Del Angel, which sent the ball towards Colquitt’s attacking end. Chloe Gould’s head shot, the pass from fellow freshman Ragan Harden, was saved in goal at 4:46.

Colquitt maintained the ball for a few minutes until Tift County broke away, kicked the ball at different angles and scored the winner at 1:53.

Gould had Colquitt’s first shot of the match, passed from Alaina Taylor, at 36;50 of the first half. Harden came out kicking the ball hard and often, and from the backline Jami Kling came through right at the goal line (31:35). Warnock’s first big play, hitting the grass on a Tift push, was at the 29-minute mark.

The first half was mainly dominating by Tift County’s possession. They had what looked like a goal negated from an offsides whistle at 15:26.

When the Lady Blue Devils ended the deadlock, it wasn’t a penalty kick, but close enough. The Lady Packers were hit with a yellow card at 10:06, and the visitors were spotted about 23 yards away for a free kick. They hit the ball high enough to scrape under the top bar and count for 1-0.

The frustrations continued to mount on the home side as Harden took a free kick 50 yards away (Keri Brown drew the foul) directed at McDaniel, but the flag went up for offsides (19:50). It would be two minutes later that McDaniel stayed onside to convert the tying goal.