A soccer match does not get any more intense and can’t be any closer than the hard fought first round matchup between Putnam County and Bacon County on April 14, but the Lady War Eagles found a way to win despite a determined Bacon County side.
Putnam and Bacon were tied at the half, and each scored a goal in the second half.
Tied at the end of regulation, the two sides battled through two overtime periods of 10 minutes each without either school scoring.
At that point, a shootout of penalty kicks decides the winner.
Each team then selects five players to participate in the shootout.
According to Coach Brandi Barling, neither school was able to make a penalty kick, so another five players were selected to make five more penalty kicks.
Again, no victor was declared.
At that point, the first team to make a penalty kick is declared the winner.
Lacey Bruce finally eliminated Bacon County from the state tournament with a penalty kick.
According to Coach Barling, the game turned out to be a roller coaster for players and coaches, but the end result was all the more satisfying because of the difficulty the side had to overcome to win.
Coach Barling said two players were unavailable because of Spring Break which forced her to reformulate the game and put some players in positions they might not have been as comfortable with. Still, the side prevailed.
Those players should be back for the next round.
Tesa Shelton, who recently signed with GMC to play college ball, demonstrated why coaches at the next level showed interest in her by denying Bacon County in the shootout rounds, facing down potential winning kicks time after time.
Lily Frisch scored both goals during regulation to give Putnam County the chance to win it.
The bracket gets even tougher next week with Putnam County traveling to The Lovett School in Atlanta to tangle with the defending state champs. Lovett advanced to the second round by trouncing Banks County 11-0.
Lovett also put Putnam County out of the state tournament last year.
But according to Coach Barling, the players aren’t intimidated by the matchup.
“They’re optimistic,” Barling said. “We’ve been watching game film and we may have found a few chinks in their armor that we can take advantage of. We’ll go out and give it our best.”