By Donald Heath

Special for the Effingham Herald

 

GUYTON – During the first three seasons South Effingham has competed in Class 6A, the Glynn Academy boys won region soccer championships.

But the Mustangs, off to their best start in school history with seven straight wins, hoped for a changing of the guard.

It didn’t happen in the teams’ first meeting this season. After the initial 10 minutes on March 5, South generated few offensive threats and fell to the Red Terrors 4-1 at the Corral in a match that saw 10 yellow cards and one red card.

“I don’t think we’re used to being in the front of the pack,” SEHS coach DaKota Paradice said. “Now we have to dig in and prove it wasn’t a lucky streak to start the season.”

Three days later, the digging started and the Mustangs returned to their winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Grovetown.

South (8-1, 5-1 in Region 2-6A play) trails Glynn (9-1, 6-1) by a half game in the region standings.

In the Glynn game, South gained a 1-0 advantage when Edson Escobar’s corner kick deflected off the goalkeeper and into the goal at 33:43.

“We scored an early goal and got comfortable. I think that kind of hurt us,” Paradice said. “It sounds crazy and I don’t wish we didn’t score, but I think if we took a longer time to score everything would have been better in the long term.”

Comparative scores with Evans could have given the Mustangs more reason to be comfortable. Glynn lost to Evans 4-2, but South knocked off the Knights 4-1.

But the Terrors only seemed to be more motivated after falling behind the Mustangs. Glynn got the equalizer and the go-ahead goal, both in similar fashion, within a span of 71 seconds midway through the first half. Chandler Owens’ unique ability to execute throw-ins about 40 yards produced the two scoring opportunities in the six-yard goal area.

“There’s not much you can do to simulate (Owens’ long throw in),” Paradice said. “We spent a practice on it, but they’ve had a whole season of practicing it so it’s hard to get up to speed. We were kind of on our heels trying to defend it.”

Glynn went ahead 3-1 when Jake Harrison poked in a corner kick. Eight minutes into the second half, the Terrors made it 4-1 on Jack Roberts’ goal after a perfect pass from Sammy Santana.

A red card to Owens with 15:19 to play left Glynn shorthanded (playing 10 against 9) the rest of the way.

The Mustangs peppered the Terrors’ goal with five shots down the stretch but couldn’t beat goalie Joseph Villalobos Vasquez, who finished with seven saves.

“We got exposed in a lot of ways,” Paradice said. “Hopefully, we’ll get better.”

Following the match, Paradice said his concern focused on the upcoming schedule. A year ago, South had its unbeaten string to begin the season snapped at eight in 3-0 loss to Glynn. The next time out, a flat Mustang team lost to Grovetown 2-0.

SEHS didn’t let that happen this time. The Mustangs scored two second-half goals to break a 1-1 deadlock. Cole Hoffman, J.P Alonso and Escobar had goals. Escobar has four goals and three assists (11 points) in the last three games.

South will be back in action on March 12 at Brunswick before returning home March 19 to host rival Effingham County.

 

Scores around the area

Effingham County’s boys (2-7-1, 1-6 Region 2-6A) broke an eight-game winless streak to start the season with a 3-2 victory over Brunswick on March 5. Esteban Reyes, Guillermo Mendoza and Kenneth Harn had first-half goals for the Rebels.

Two days later, sophomore Deagan Duttenhoffer had three goals in ECHS’ 5-1 non-region win over Johnson.

In girls play, South Effingham’s Addison Tulowitzki and freshman Juliana Galoni scored to give the Mustangs a 2-0 victory over Grovetown on March 8. SEHS (4-6, 2-5) lost its first meeting with Warriors 2-0 on Feb. 16.

Effingham County (2-7, 2-5) lost to Brunswick 1-0 on March 5.