MOULTRIE – Colquitt County High boys soccer’s quest for a perfect 10-0 start to the 2019 season is certain to be put through the proverbial ringer today, much like it was one week ago when the Packers hosted both their first home and Region 1-7A match.

While Camden County High – famous for being around three hours away from Colquitt – took Jimbo Jarvis’ club to overtime and a penalty-kick shootout on Feb. 22 (the Packers winning it 4-3), a much, much closer rival is on its way to the Packer Pitch.

Jarvis said he expects the usual tough battle against the Tift County High Blue Devils.

“Neither side will quit,” said Jarvis. “We’re going to attack it like all others. If we play our game, I like our chances.”

And the Packers have been playing their game all season, even in situations with matches on consecutive days that tax their energy. That was the case Monday and Tuesday of this week when they played at Brookwood School in Thomasville and Ware County High, located between the home campus and Camden County in Waycross.

Against the Gators, Colquitt County won 3-1 in a contest where Jarvis said he tried to play his regulars sparingly.

“We had trouble finishing, but that was because of tired legs,” he said. “We dominated possession about 80 percent of the time.”

Seven minutes into play, Pedro Luna finished a crossing pass from Jason Gallardo in a scenario “just like we practice,” according to Jarvis. Basically, it’s a sequence where the young freshman forward gets the ball on the baseline and crosses it into the box in front of the net.

John Reid Jarvis made a penalty kick at the 18-minute mark of the first half, and that was all of the scoring before the break.

It stayed 2-0 more than halfway through the second half. Colquitt lost one goal to an offsides whistle in the 66th minute, then five minutes later Enrique Salgado broke away with the soccer ball. He beat the Gator goalkeeper 1-on-1 for the third point by the Packers.

Ware’s only goal was the result of a ball off Colquitt’s keeper’s hands that was headed in off a rebound.

On Monday, the Packers crushed the Brookwood Warriors 12-2 in a match that ended with about two minutes remaining. Both the Brookwood points were on penalty kicks. Gallardo had a four-goal game with one assist, and five other Packers notched at least one goal.

As was the case in Waycross, Luna scored first 10 minutes into the action with an assist to Ulisis Malagon. The goals then came in droves as Juan Pascual and Gallardo scored over the next four minutes, assists to Salgado and Ruben Gonzalez.

Two minutes later, the Warriors were on the board via the PK, but Colquitt got back in the scoring flow with two points from the 27th to the 31st minute of the first half. Gonzalez both scored himself and assisted Pascual’s second goal.

Gallardo scored three more times in the second half with assists to Gilbert Velasquez, Jarvis and Aldo Miranda. Brookwood’s second PK came at the 50th minute when the Packers already had six goals. So that total doubled over 28 game minutes with two by Miranda, a 20-yard kick by Jarvis and Luna’s second goal assisted by Gallardo.

Coach Jarvis said Colquitt’s heavy game schedule means his club’s played about twice as many times as most teams in the state. He said this means as the regular season winds down, the Packers will have more off days while others are getting in a lot of matches (even with trying to make up those postponed by weather).

• On the Lady Packers soccer front, things went from bad to worse on the roster for first-year coach Will Phillips. Two players – Mary Jacobs and Chloe Sumner – were injured in last Friday’s Camden County match. Prolific goal scorer Chloe Gould was out the first part of this week due to an illness.

Then, on Monday at Brookwood, striker Ragan Harden went down to a knee injury, one that could keep her off the pitch for two weeks, Phillips said.

Colquitt lost to Brookwood 8-2, and Harden’s injury occurred in the 10th minute. The Lady Packers were down 5-0, and with 8:29 to play Evelyn Vazquez, a freshman, scored on an assist from Brenda Vasquez.

In the second half, Colquitt scored a second straight point, this by Vazquez with Lexie McDaniel assisting. But Phillips said they “ran out of gas” from there, and Brookwood pulled away.

The Lady Packers also went to Ware County Tuesday and fell 4-1. McDaniel scored on a free kick from a corner halfway through the second half.

“Definitely, the kids were tired,” said Phillips. “But we have to go after Tift (today).”