MOULTRIE – While the Colquitt County High boys soccer team was having a blast blasting Lee County High on the Packer Pitch Friday, it was getting some big help out by the southeast coast.

Coach Jimbo Jarvis is still focused on the GHSA playoffs regardless of the seed from Region 1-7A. It wouldn’t bother him to have at least two home playoff matches to start a run for the state title, and that just might be the case.

Lowndes High, also on Friday, defeated Camden County High in Kingsland 1-0 to hand the Wildcats their second region loss, the other being to Colquitt County in Moultrie. The Packers and Camden entered the weekend with one 1-7A loss apiece – those to each other – but now Colquitt is in sole possession of first with a 4-1 record and one more region match left. Camden dropped to 3-2 in the league and still has Tift County to play on April 12.

Also on April 12, Colquitt plays its final region match at Lowndes.

The Packers, No. 9 in Class 7A’s eurosportscoreboard.com ranking, improved to 13-1 overall by thrashing Lee County 7-1. Colquitt doubled the final margin to six with three goals in the final eight minutes of regulation.

What disturbed Jarvis on the sideline was that the Trojans scored in the second half following a red-card violation, which limited them to 10 players against Colquitt’s 11.

But possession domination was evident for the Packers in the first half. Following two wide misses in the first two minutes, Aldo Miranda crossed the ball to John Reid Jarvis. He scored at 34:23 for 1-0. Miranda, for his part, was responsible for numerous 50-50 wins in the opening five minutes.

Six minutes after the first goal, Pedro Luna’s drop-off pass to Ruben Gonzalez resulted in a shot saved by the Lee goalkeeper.

But the Trojans were soon victimized by Colquitt’s speed and hustle. From the backline, Bobby Ussrey of Colquitt led the ball towards Lee’s goal, and it was taken by an opposing defender. However, Enrique Salgado out-ran that back to steal away the soccer ball. He passed it off to Bryan Jimenez for the second Packer goal at 24:44.

The furious attack speared by Abram Sanchez, Salgado and Jason Gallardo got Colquitt two more shots on goal over the next three minutes. Josh Aviles saw his shot saved.

Trying to catch up, Lee fouled 35 yards away from its goal. Miranda took the free kick that bounced to Juan Pascual. He hit an open spot to find the back of the net for 3-0 Packers at the 19-minute mark.

That would be the halftime margin, and the only time Colquitt’s starting keeper, Kevin Rodriguez, made a play on the ball was at 17:45. The Packers backed him up with some defense, Miranda stopping an attack at the 16-minute mark and Aviles breaking up a crossing pass a minute later.

Gilbert Velasquez broke away down the right side to earn his team a free kick just outside the penalty box with 13 minutes to go. From this, Humberto Aguilar moved up from the back line and tried a head shot that missed high.

Lee County saved shots at 9:40 and at 7:34, this one a strike by Gallardo from another free kick just outside the box (Gonzalez tripped on the attack). In-between, Aviles, on a back pass by Gonzalez, tried a 25-yard blast that landed on top of the net.

In the final five minutes, junior varsity call-ups Alex Malagon and Juan Espinoza excelled on defense along with Aguilar.

The first half went by without corner kicks, so in the opening two minutes of the second half Colquitt set up one with Pascual’s crossing pass to Luna. Lee’s keeper punched the shot away. Five minutes in, Pascual missed wide from a pass inside from Salgado.

Pascual would not miss – actually, he got help from the post – at 31:12 when he claimed a 50-50 ball 25 yards away and found the correct angle to up Colquitt’s lead to 4-0.

The red card on Lee County occurred with less than 28 minutes to play. It was at 19:42 that the Trojans ended the shutout bid with a crossing pass from the left to the middle. The visitors followed it up with a fist save on the other end off a corner kick at the 14-minute mark.

Colquitt piled on the corner kicks over the next five minutes with not much to show except for Aguilar’s header that went wide.

Gallardo also couldn’t connect from a corner, but he later followed Pascual’s example by kicking the ball from left to right and using the post to score at 8:02.

Gallardo scored a second time at 4:50, then Miranda charged off the kick-off to punch in his team’s seventh goal.