By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          The expectation for GMC’s boys soccer team was always the same, contend for a state title.

          But with late arrivals from basketball, and plenty of youth in the lineup, there was the natural suspense of the unknown.

          So much for suspense.

          GMC showed few signs of inexperience or tentativeness, nor any issues with the transition of basketball players becoming soccer players, and yet again, the Bulldogs are playing for a GHSA Class A (Division II) state soccer trophy.        

          The Bulldogs and Lions open the GHSA state finals week at McEachern in Powder Springs, northwest of Atlanta, with the second match of the first day.

          McEachern hosts all four days, with Mercer on Tuesday and Wednesday and Duluth on Thursday and Friday. That’s a change, thanks to the Mercer women’s lacrosse team winning the Big South regular season, and thus hosting rights for the Big South Tournament. It starts on Friday.

GHSA state soccer championships
Tuesday
At McEachern
Class A/II

5 p.m., Girls, Towns County vs. Aquinas
7:30 p.m., Boys, GMC vs. Christian Heritage

At Mercer
Class A/I

5 p.m., Girls, Mt. Vernon vs. Paideia
7:30 p.m., Boys, Atlanta International vs. Paideia

Wednesday
At McEachern
Class AA

5 p.m., Girls, Fellowship Christian vs. Athens Academy
7:30 p.m., Boys, Providence Christian vs. Tattnall County

At Mercer
Class AAA

5 p.m., Girls, Oconee County vs. Bremen
7:30 p.m., Boys, Oconee County vs. Coahulla Creek

Thursday
At McEachern
Class 4A

5 p.m., Girls, North Oconee vs. Westminster
7:30 p.m., Boys, Johnson-Gainesville vs. Westminster

At Duluth
Class 5A

5 p.m., Girls, Greenbrier vs. Chamblee
7:30 p.m., Boys, Dalton vs. Midtown

Friday
At McEachern
Class 6A

5 p.m., Girls, Roswell vs. Marist
7:30 p.m., Lassiter vs. River Ridge

At Duluth
Class 7A

5 p.m., Girls, Denmark vs. Walton
7:30 p.m., Boys, Walton vs. Lambert 

          Class A/Division II is at McEachern, not that the Bulldogs wouldn’t have minded playing at Mercer. After all, GMC won titles there in 2019 and 2021.

          But playing in the season finale is the priority, and it’s been an interesting year for the Bulldogs and veteran head coach – officially, a community coach – Bobby Jaworski.

          Two goalies have had concussions. The game in which the Bulldogs showed what they were capable of came with one of their best players missing, thanks to a family wedding. And they currently start as many freshmen as seniors.

          Jaworski had planned to start the season with some new strategies, but he bailed on that during the season opener.

          “We scrapped that idea at that point,” he said with a chuckle. “We went back to a base formation.”

          GMC was driving home from that opening 4-3 loss to Peach County, and Jaworski got a call asking if he’d heard about Davis Duke. No.

          Duke went up for a dunk, got undercut, came down on his head, started seizing and bleeding on the court during a boys basketball game. The gym was cleared, and after concerns about Duke’s health, Jaworski expected not to have Duke for a long time, if at all.

          It ended up being some stitches, and a further delayed season debut.

          That was normal for soccer teams. With the season being moved up a week, soccer teams would get basketball players later.

          Jaworski pulled double duty this season, also coaching the GMC girls. Harlem came to town, and goalkeeper Jayden Bandows had been confirmed to have a concussion from the West Laurens game three days earlier.

          The options were to throw in a just-cleared-to-play Duke with no preseason – for him – workouts, or freshman Aidan Saylor.

          At final warmups, Jaworski sees a cleared-to-play Duke at the net.

          “They’re taking shots as the final part of the warmup,” Jaworski said. “And (Duke) is making … dives, overhand saves. ‘Uh, hey man. You ready?’

          Duke was ready.

“All right.”

          So that’s two goalies, two concussions. Then Bandows hyperextended an elbow in the middle of the season, in the first of two wins over Lincoln County, but that’s another story.

          The Bulldogs have started three freshman most of the year, adding a fourth when junior Owen McCabe went down.

          GMC had 13 seniors on its title-winning team two years ago, and went 11-8 last year with only three seniors.

          This year, the Bulldogs basically start four seniors, four freshman, a sophomore and two juniors. And it’s a quiet, focused, quiet group.

          “This team’s not that vocal,” Jaworski said. “It’s just quiet assassins, in a way. The most enjoyable thing with this group is how they play. There are games were I literally don’t have to say a word. We get done with pregame talk, I get my stat book, sit down, feel out the flow of the game, and they just cook.

          “It’s wild, man.”

          Jaworski saw the soccer potential earlier than expected, during the Peach County game, and then knew he had a contending team during a 2-0 win over Upson-Lee, during which the Bulldogs had opportunities galore while cruising after scoring early. And they did so without McCabe, who was in a family wedding.

          Goals or not, the Bulldogs looked like a team that knew what it was doing.

          “When we score, we score,” Jaworski said. “When we don’t score, we’re creating a ton of opportunities and getting good looks.”

          Zac Koehler, Tommy Carty, Landon Oltremari, and Bennie Huff are the four freshmen. That’s about a third of the freshman class Jaworski has.

          ‘To have four of them starting at this point of the season, that’s kind of unheard of for a state finalist,” said Jaworski, in his 12th season with the boys program.

          The Bulldogs are led offensively by a few veterans.

          Senior Levi Ward has 22 goals and 14 assists, and junior Brian Sherwood has 17 and 14. McCabe, a junior, has nine goals, a third for game-winners. Freshman Carty has 12 goals and 10 assists.

          Overall, 19 Bulldogs have played in at least two-thirds of GMC’s 17 matches, with most getting 25 minutes or so per outing.

          So it’s a mixture of just about everything going for a third state title in a short time.

          Christian Heritage is 12-1-3, the loss 1-0 on Feb. 23 to Coahulla Creek, which is a Class AAA finalist, playing on Wednesday at Mercer. The ties have come with Cedartown, Dalton Academy, and Northwest Whitfield.

          The Lions have outscored opponents 88-10, and own eight shutout wins.

          GMC is 15-1-1, opening the season with that loss to AAA Peach County, and tying Class 4A West Laurens three weeks later. Amazingly, the Bulldogs have outscored the opposition 88-10 as well, with 10 shutouts.

          Jaworski said the finale will be a battle of contrasts.

          “They’ve got some dynamic guys up front; their back line is massive,” he said. “They are built from the front back, and we’re built the opposite, from the back forward. I think our defense is tip-top, and they’re going to have a dynamic attack.

          “So it’s going to be interesting to watch both of those groups battle.”