The first Gilmer High School varsity home soccer action took place last Thursday night at Clear Creek Middle School, against Region 7-4A adversary Heritage.

By the conclusion of the evening, the Lady Cats had dropped a 2-0 affair, while the Bobcats had picked up their first win of the season over the Generals, 3-1.

Bobcats

Gilmer came out with a strong defense in the first half, leaving goaltenders Dillan Ledford and Christian Hernandez with just six saves between them in the first 40 minutes.

After several missed shots at the goal, Rodrigo Casas finally found the inside of the net with 24:23 left in the half to put the Cats on top 1-0. He then missed another shot just two minutes later, before adding another point at the 18-minute mark.

Heritage finally responded with its only goal of the contest, as 5:42 remained in the half. Ervin Lopez added a third goal for the Bobcats with 24:49 left in the second half, off a header from Roberto Carlos. Heritage failed to make up the deficit and gave GHS its first overall and region win of the season.

“We had a definite plan coming in,” said Bobcats head coach Simon Phipps after the win. “We learned a lot from our first two games. Sonoraville was a very tough game; North Murray was a very fast-paced game. So the plan coming in tonight was to play a bit more defensive for the back five and across the middle and use Rodrigo’s (Casas) speed up top, to play the ball down the sides and over the top and try to rush them. We had a lot of possession, but we’ve still got a lot of youth on the team. We’re still learning and the more we play, get used to the game, the speed of the game and how it works, we’ll improve.”

Starting Gilmer goalkeeper Ledford had 12 saves, while Hernandez had two saves.

Lady Cats

Gilmer was unable to generate any offense, but kept Heritage limited after two goals in the first half. The Lady Generals found the net just over a minute and a half into the game, before adding another goal with 17:42 left before halftime.

Autumn Durham and Sabrina Zagarola took turns taking shots at the goal throughout the contest, but were unable to sneak a shot past the Heritage goalkeeper. The Lady Cats held Heritage scoreless in the second half, but were unable to take advantage and dropped the contest 2-0.

“Heritage is a good team, who usually competes for a state spot every year,” said head Lady Cats coach April Nicholson. “Our girls made two mistakes early in the first half that cost us goals. We held them scoreless for over half of the game, and I am incredibly proud of that. Each year we have played them, we have improved the score. Overall, the girls played a great game, and we are exceedingly proud of their effort and resilience.”

Gilmer goalkeeper Briana McClure finished the game with 17 saves.

Generals win JV contest

One day after the varsity match, the JV Bobcats traveled to Heritage and dropped a 1-0 contest to the Generals.

“It was a very close game,” Phipps said. “We had a lot of position and I feel that we should have at least finished the game in a tie.”

 

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