Colquitt County boys soccer team splits first two games

Published 8:20 pm Saturday, February 6, 2021

MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County boys soccer team, which lost 15 seniors from its outstanding 2020 team, has shown its lack of experience in its first two games this season.

After battling Thomas County Central to a standoff and 1-1 in a preseason match, the Packers opened the season at home against Lee County on Tuesday.

The Packers trailed the Trojans 1-0 at the half after playing “some of the worst soccer I have seen since taking over the boys,” said coach Jimbo Jarvis.

“We worked so hard at halftime to correct the issues and played much better the second half.”

After intermission, Colquitt scored three unanswered goals and won 3-1.

And against Thomasville on the road on Friday, the Packers played well for the first 25 minutes, took 14 shots and led 1-0 on a goal by Jason Gallardo.

Then, “We played like JV the rest of the game,” Jarvis said after the Packers had dropped a 3-1 decision.

“This team is basically made up of last year’s JV and with no summer work due to COVID, they are till playing like JV,” Jarvis said. “But for the first 25 minutes, they played what we have been working on in practice. Then they resorted back to old habits.”

There are only five experienced players back from the team that was 9-1last year before the coronavirus cut short the season.

Those five include keeper Isaac Dorotea and field players Gallardo, Jair Landa, Kevin Galvin and Jonathan Perez.

The rest of the team is getting used to the speed of the game, which is much quicker than what they were used to while playing on the junior varsity, Jarvis said.

The Lady Packers rebounded from a 10-0 season-opening loss to Lee County to play better against Thomasville.

“We can’t spot a team a 40-minute head start and expect to get a result,” coach Will Phillips said.

Phillips said his team played better in the second half and cut the deficit in half on Mollie Hewett’s first varsity goal.

The Lady Packers had chances to tie the game, but came up short, falling 2-1.

“I was proud of the way the girls played in the second half,” Phillips said. “We dug deep and had most of the play, but we have to do that on a consistent basis to be successful.

“Losing is never easy, but I think we were able to take some positive things from this game that will help us moving forward, especially when we get into region play in two weeks.”

Colquitt County will play host to Lee County again on Tuesday at Packer Park.

Also, the Colquitt County junior varsity boys opened their season with a 4-1 victory at Lee County on Thursday.

Giovanni Pascual, Luis Corona, Daniel Zongua and Dionico Rocha scored the Packer goals.