With two games left, the Jones County High girls’ soccer team has had to refocus after failing to qualify for the region 4-AAAA tournament. A 5-1 loss to Upson-Lee March 20, a 4-2 loss to Northside March 23, and a 6-0 loss to Stockbridge March 24 put the Lady Greyhounds out of contention to finish as one of the top four teams in sub-region 4B-AAAA and earn a spot in the April 14 region tournament.
“To qualify you have to be in the top four, and looking at it now, we would have had to win all three of those games and have some help,” head coach Will Mitcham said. “But mathematically it was still possible.”
“Now we’ve got to focus on just playing hard and finishing the season strong. We’ve got two tough teams left, and we’ve just got to play it out.”
The Lady ’Hounds (3-9) were set to travel to Westside Tuesday before finishing the season at Mary Persons April 10.
Mitcham said that the experience of being in the playoff hunt will help his team in the coming years.
“We also now know what it takes to play with these teams and the effort it’s going to require to win those games,” he said.
He stated that his team’s struggle to play consistently for the entirety of contests has been the biggest hurdle in trying to put more notches in the win column.
“It seems like we’re always close at the half, but we can’t finish games,” he said.
Mitcham said that the region is very even, as evidenced by the close margins of defeat in the contests against Upson-Lee, Northside, and Stockbridge.
Dutchtown is the only undefeated squad in 4B-AAAA.
The coach will lose only four seniors, Tori Criswell, Jessica Denny, Gena Perry, and Ashley Robinson, as 11 juniors are set to return for what will be a senior-laden 2008 squad.
“It’s been very tough anytime you lose to try and see the bright side, and I have been frustrated and the girls have gotten frustrated, but it has never been negative frustration,” Mitcham said. “They haven’t gotten mad. They’ve worked together, and it’s just baby steps right now.”
Jason Smith’s boys’ soccer team had moved its record to 4-4-1 in its inaugural season after splitting its most recent contests with Northside and Stockbridge.
Dayne Foti and Kevin Green scored for the ’Hounds as they defeated Northside 2-1 March 23.
The next day, though the Greyhounds trailed just 3-0 at the half to Stockbridge, they went on to suffer a 15-0 defeat.
“I try not to schedule games during spring break, because when spring break rolls around, their heads are not in it,” Smith said. “That was the Saturday before spring break, and it showed.”
Despite the tough loss to Stockbridge, Smith was encouraged by the win over Northside, a team that the Greyhounds will match up against in sub-region 4B-AAAA when they adopt a full varsity schedule next season.
“We’re a JV team, and we’ve been playing other schools’ varsity teams,” Smith said. “Plus we’ve only been playing together for nine weeks.”
