For the 2nd straight season, the Portal Middle High girls' varsity soccer team hosted the Sweet 16 at home. Just like last season, the Lady Panthers dominated with a 9-0 victory.
Portal hosted Dooly County on Tuesday, April 29th in the second round of the GHSA Class A Division II state playoffs. The Lady Panthers had to come from behind in their first round win last week. The team was determined to start out faster in this round as Hilda Reyes got Portal on the board in the opening minutes of the game.
Head Coach Johnnie Sanchez talked about how important is what to start the game better than they last round. "We emphasized that we could not start the same way we did last game," Sanchez said. "We scored a couple goals in the first 10-15 minutes and that kind of sent a message."
After the first score, it was the ColbyStewart show. She scored the first of her 6 goals in the 11th minute. Then followed it up by taking the ball nearly coast to coast to extend the lead to 3. Stewart's teammates knew she was hot and started to set her up to score even more. Anahi Sanchez-Reyes flipped the field as she sent a pass to Stewart for her 3rd goal. Sanchez-Reyes hit the replay button and did it again minutes later for Stewart's 4th goal.
The Lady Panthers took a 6-0 lead into the half and the game was very much out of reach. Stewart scored her final goal early in the 2nd half. Olivia Brown and Serenity Williams also found themselves on the scoreboard with goals in the 2nd half.
As great as the offense was for Portal, the defense was just as good. Their opponents only got 1 good shot at the goal and the Panthers dominated the time of possession. "We were super prepared," Sanchez. "We knew they had two players and like to do the same thing over again so we knew had to cut them off."
Up Next:
The Lady Panthers advance to the Elite 8 where they will go on the road to take on Lake Oconee Academy on Monday, May 5th.
Good Luck Panthers!