By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Back in early March, ACE sat there with a 1-5 record.

          The Gryphons were shut out in four of the losses, managed a goal in the other two.

          ACE went on a three-match winning streak, albeit with one win against a smaller GISA program, following a loss to a GISA team.

          But for a team in its first year of varsity GHSA competition, any step forward was a good step.

          And ACE is improbably still stepping forward.

          The Gryphons will go for the stunning on Thursday, a state championship in their first year of varsity competition.

          ACE will take on Atlanta Classical at 5 p.m. at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium in the GHSA Class A-Public girls soccer state championship.

          The Gryphons are 12-8-1, and went 4-2 in Class A-Public Area 2, finishing right behind GMC, which was eliminated by Atlanta Classical 2-0 in a semifinal.

          Soccer areas are constructed different than regions for other sports in the GHSA.

          ACE is 11-3-1 since that rugged beginning, tying 4A Howard and beating 3A Central and Rutland.

          “We did get off to a rocky start,” said head coach Robby Jones, who prepared the first varsity team this year with competition in a JV league last year that had mostly bigger-classification teams. “We were the single-A team and we were in there with triple-A, quad-A, and 5A. I know that was the best way to prepare us for our varsity season.”

          And then the early part of the schedule had mostly bigger teams.

          “I tried to schedule hard so we could take our lumps early,” he said. “We knew once we got to the regular schedule, we’d have a pretty good chance.”

          Plus, there was a natural transition from junior varsity play to varsity.

          “I think it was just the girls figuring it out,” Jones said. “Varsity games, it’s a lot more fast and furious. You just have to get accustomed to that, to getting banged around.”

          Jones spent five seasons as head coach at Mary Persons, going 54-28-6. He left there at the end of the 2015-16 year to take over at ACE.

          The young program has handled a schedule of mostly road games and an early-season injury to center back Kaitlyn Maddox. Lizzy Mitchell came up from the junior varsity and filled in well for Maddox, and different players have also filled in for the injured Brianna Hamlin.

          Senior Kameron Johnson has 23 goals and five assists, and sophomore Paige Suk has 28 goals and 12 assists.

          “We’ve got two players that are ‘A’ players, they are two ‘A’ quality players,” Jones said of Johnson and Suk. “They run the show, run in the middle. If you’re going to beat us, you gotta go out wide. Everything gets funneled out wide. They’re difficult to deal with.

          Senior Marissa Goss found a groove in goal to record 128 saves.

          “She comes out of the box to face you,” Jones said, “and it’s going to be a collision, and you’re going to lose. She’s strong, she’s physical.”

          The Gryphons are a little different than Atlanta Classical Academy, which has been highly ranked this season.

          “They’re a close-game, low-scoring game type of team,” said Jones. “We’re a little more balanced. We want to defend, but we want to attack.”

         

GMC boys ride experience, hunger to final

          Not long ago, GMC was a program that struggled to win once or twice a month.

          But the past three years have been mighty different, to the point where the Bulldogs reaching the GHSA Class A-Public boys soccer championship was almost inevitable.

          That’s where they are, playing Lake Oconee Academy Thursday night at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium.

          They’ve gone from one win in 2014 to a program record 18 wins this year, after 17 a year ago and 12 the year before that.

          The GHSA splitting up the soccer playoffs between public and private accelerated the accomplishment.

          The Bulldogs were among the few successful public-school teams in the postseason in the private-dominated sport the past few seasons, winning three straight first-round games.

          GMC reeled off 13 wins to start the season, giving up only 10 goals along the way, before Benedictine won 4-2. The Bulldogs got a win over Social Circle before falling 4-2 to Class AA semifinalist Putnam County.

          They’ve won four straight since then by a 17-5 margin, although the 10-1 win over a three-win Dooly County team to open the playoffs.

          As good as the Bulldogs were last year, consider this: they went from 63 goals to 105, and could probably finish even better.

          Ethan Tolentino leads the Bulldogs with 22 goals, while Logan Steinmeyer has 16 goals and 12 assists.

          Taylor Sherwood leads the Bulldogs with 24 assists to go with 12 goals, fifth-best on the team. Tolentino and Sherwood share the team lead with 48 points.

          Steinmeyer has been a huge boost in his senior season after playing in only nine games and scoring three times as a junior. The wing or center mid has started 19 games.

          Josh Walker has done the same, playing center mid in last year’s playoffs but moving to center back.

          Eden Kaninjing is a sophomore transfer from Florida who has been of impact at left back and some outside winger.

          The Bulldogs lost two key players from last year’s 17-3 team.

          Aaron Kirkland had 10 goals and 13 assists in earning assorted postseason honors, after two years as a captain and team MVP. He started out at Brewton-Parker but is returning to Milledgeville to GMC college.

          Center back Blake Taylor started eight games and was a defensive whiz for two years.

          GMC has set a program record with 18 wins, and this senior class – Steinmeyer and Sherwood are joined by Michael Barnes, Dylan Smith, goalie Sean Herndon, and Josh Walker in the starting lineup – has 50 wins.

          GMC and Lake Oconee Academy played in early March, the Bulldogs winning 2-1 and take a fourth straight win.

          The locale is likely to play a huge role.

          Most of Lake Oconee’s games have been on turf, and only a few of GMC’s have been. Thus GMC – like ACE – visited the Ed DeFore Sports Complex and its new surface to get some work in.

          But the turf definitely favors the Titans.

          The game will be something of a homecoming and reunion for Lake Oconee head coach Julie Brooker.

          She is in her third season at LOA after spending several seasons at GMC. Her reputation was built in softball, and state championships, but she got a few years of coaching boys soccer under her belt at GMC.