MOULTRIE – Sometimes, the 10 minutes of overtime play in high school soccer doesn’t amount to much. Friday at Packer Park was one of the exceptions, and it came at a bad time for the Colquitt County High boys.

Marietta High, with 32 seconds left in the first five-minute extra period, slipped in a goal from a right angle, and it held up to give the visiting Blue Devils a 2-1 win against the home-standing Packers in the opening round of the GHSA 7A playoffs. All 10 minutes of overtime must be played out – including the second five-minute period – but Colquitt never found a good scoring opportunity even with one corner kick the rest of the way.

The Packer season on the pitch ended with a 13-4-1 overall record. Marietta, the third-place team from Region 3-7A, came to Moultrie with a 12-5-1 mark and earned the right to face Berkmar High in the second round.

Before falling behind in overtime, Jimbo Jarvis’ club had the first best chance to score the tiebreaker. It was a free kick awarded on a foul against Carlos Landa outside the edge of the penalty box. Through the hustle of George Barber, the Packers also had a corner kick at 1:10

But getting close to a score and actually scoring the goals were two different tasks on Friday. Each side was up to the challenge of meeting the others’ kicks resulting in a lot of quick one-end-to-the-other movement of the soccer ball.

Packer defenders like Barber were marking the Blue Devil players and running in stride the whole match. Marietta in the first half had the edge in possession time. Just two minutes into play, Barber, Wes Smith and Ruben Gonzalez forced the first Blue Devil corner kick. The ball was played to the opposite end, and another ‘corner’ kick was caught by goalkeeper Blayton Duncan.

Will Barber, the senior brother of the sophomore George, joined Smith in defending a dribbler to make an easy stop for Duncan, who flipped the field for the Packers. But even those possessions didn’t last long for Colquitt, and soon Will Barber and Emmanuel Rodriguez found themselves working against a dribbling Blue Devil.

When George Barber made the clearing kick, Jose Moreno settled the ball and passed up ahead to Gonzalez. This was the first big push for the Packer offense, and the Marietta keeper caught the ball just five minutes into the half.

As was the pattern for the match, the Blue Devils were back down to their attacking end, and Rodriguez disrupted the play again for a Duncan stop.

Still in the first 10 minutes, Will Barber disrupted the Marietta attack and – following the visitors’ steal of a throw-in – Eric Leon successfully took the Blue Devils on one-on-one.

Gonzalez, at 30:28, took the first home shot on goal from the right side, but it was saved.

At 28:50 – speared by the defense of Will Barber – Juan Pascual, Carlos Landa and Paulino Munoz combined to set up a blasting shot saved. Over the next five minutes, Marietta had wide shots at the net until getting a corner (23:55), but Will Barber cleared that away.

It wasn’t until 22:30 that the first free kick of the match inside of 30 yards went to Marietta, but the ball went straight to Duncan. Colquitt’s first corner try then came a minute later, but it didn’t take a minute for Marietta to be back on the attack, Smith doing the job here to force a goal kick.

Perhaps the Packer defensive moment of the half came from Pascual backing up his keeper on Marietta’s corner kick at 19:40. One more corner for the Blue Devils was at the 18-minute mark, and numerous Packers worked kick after kick to get it away.

Colquitt’s next best chance at the Marietta net came when Munoz missed wide from 20 yards away at 14:50. Duncan was busy over the next two minutes with two saves, plus he got a key block from Will Barber. The Blue Devils had two other kicks go over the net.

In the final eight minutes, Moreno picked up the pace at midfield. He passed to Bryan Galardo, who missed wide from 20 away. Moreno also drew a foul at 5:45, but the free kick was caught.

At 4:37, Duncan caught a crossing effort, which led to a Packer fast break. Landa passed to Galardo, who missed wide of an open net. Duncan came back with a point-blank save (2:34), and Smith helped keep the match scoreless at the half defending the Blue Devils in the final 15 seconds.

So it was obvious going into the second half any goal would be big, and Duncan was ready catching his first chance just 25 seconds in. There was a lot of passing the other way between Moreno and Raymon Garcia, but the ensuing shot was blocked. Pascual put the first ball on goal only to see it caught at 37:50.

The Packers started to build an edge in shot attempts, Munoz’ onside lead to Gonzalez leading to a high ball one minute later. But Colquitt also received the first yellow card (33:49).

Will Barber continued to be a major defensive asset with help from Rodriguez. Marietta was back in the corner kick game after the first 10 minutes. The Packers took the ball with Pascual, Munoz and Rodriguez creating a charge. Munoz missed his shot, and would miss again high at 25:55.

Duncan, less than a minute later, did a great slap save. Moreno won two battles for a give-and-go game with Garcia. They tried to feed Munoz, but he missed again at 22:20.

It was then Marietta breaking through first when the Packers missed slide tackles at 17:18. The Blue Devil got loose and connected for 1-0.

For the next three minutes the Packers worked to draw back even. First it was Munoz’ cross for a header by Moreno that missed high. But when Moreno found Landa in the box, he looped the ball up and over the keeper for the tying point at 14:20.

For the remainder of regulation, Duncan made three saves, blocking a shot at 13:40 and making a leaping catch at 6:02.