The Portal Panthers hosted the Brooks County Trojans on Tuesday in the first round of the state playoffs. The Panthers found themselves down by 1 with 13 minutes to go before Colby Stewart scored 2 goals in the final 12 minutes to steal the win for Portal and advance to the Sweet 16.
Despite the Lady Panthers having a far better regular season record than the Trojans, this game would come down to the very end, and it would take a resilient effort from Portal to get the win.
Portal got on the board early as Maggie Brannen scored the games first goal on a penalty kick in the 11th minute. Brooks County's Hilary Galvez tied the game up after she got behind the defense and sent the ball into the right bottom corner of the net in the 23rd minute.
The two teams would remain deadlocked at 1 for the remainder of the 1st half. Galvez had a couple of chances to take the lead for her team as she got an uncontested look at the goal, but the shot hooked to the left and missed.
In the 2nd half Galvez, the Trojans stayed on the attack and continued to put pressure on Portal's goal. Galvez caught the defense out of position as she scored in the 37th minute to take the lead.
The Panthers were now down and faced their season ending in the first round of the playoffs. Portal turned up the pressure on defense and attacked the ball at every opportunity. They got several shots at the goal but all were saved or just missed.
With 12:51 left in the 2nd half, Colby Stewart got the ball right outside of the penalty area and sent the ball past the goalkeeper to tie the game. She was not done there as she found herself in scoring position again and shot the ball over the goalkeeper to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead in the 75th minute.
The Panthers would hold on to win the game and advance to the Sweet 16 for the 2nd straight season.
Coach Johnnie Sanchez spoke on his team's resiliency during the game.
"We started out slow, I think the heat bothered us," Sanchez said. "We started to find a rhythm, started working together and we kept fighting through." Sanchez noted that having a long lay off might have played a part in the slow start.
Up Next:
The Panthers will be back at home on Tuesday, April 29th as they take on Dooly County in the sweet 16 of the state playoffs.
