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Fayette teams well represented in state soccer playoffs

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

The second season of the 2005 soccer season starts today with four girls games. Tomorrow’s games, all boys games, will be split with three games occurring at home and two games taking place on the road. Seven home games to kick off the state playoffs proves that Fayette County is still a hotbed of soccer talent.

Today’s games are:

McIntosh Lady Chiefs vs. Effingham County Lady Rebels, 5 p.m.

McIntosh, last year’s AAAAA champions, are ranked number one in AAAA and have to be considered the favorites to win the AAAA title this year. They produced four wins over ranked opponents in AAAA this season and out scored those teams 18-3. The Lady Chiefs went 19-0-1 this season with their tie coming against their crosstown rivals the Starr’s Mill Lady Panthers, who are ranked number one in AAAAA. McIntosh has produced 11 shutouts this season while outscoring their opponents 128-11. Nine of their wins were by five goals or more.

Effingham County went 6-3-4 this season but closed out the season with a 5-0-2 stretch. Their five wins were all shutouts and two of their losses were to ranked opponents.

Fayette County Lady Tigers vs. Riverdale Lady Raiders, 5:30 p.m.

The Lady Tigers finished with a 9-6 regular season record and a 5-1 region record. After a shaky 1-3-2 record to start the season, they ran up an 8-3 record. They out scored their opponents 34-10 in that final stretch of 11 games while posting six shutouts. The Riverdale Lady Raiders (8-4-1) went 3-1-1 in April and out scored their opponents 13-12 in that span. They finished their season with a 2-2 tie against Mundy’s Mill. The Lady Tigers beat Mundy’s Mill earlier in the season 10-0.

Whitewater Lady Wildcats vs. Evans Lady Knights, 6 p.m.

Whitewater has had a magical season so far. The team consists of freshmen and sophomores and they finished with a record of 11-6-2 with a ranking of 10th in AAAA. Whitewater has out scored their opponents 62-32 this season and five of their wins were shutouts. Two of their six losses were to top ranked McIntosh, including a 6-0 loss last Friday in the region championship game.

Evans is a weird team to be ranked third out of 2-AAAA. The Lady Knights are 12-2-1 and they started the season with a 12 game unbeaten streak. Their two losses this season came at the hands of their state ranked region opponents, Greenbrier, Evans and Lakeside, Evans. The Lady Knights posted eight shutouts this season and out scored their opponents 83-13.

Starr’s Mill Lady Panthers vs. Douglass Lady Astros, 7 p.m.

Starr’s Mill is ranked number one in AAAAA and is 14-0-2. They out scored their opponents 99-15 this season and have posted nine shutouts. The Lady Panthers have a high octane offense that has scored five goals or more nine times and having made the state championship game last year have to be considered the favorites in AAAAA.

Douglass is 4-3 and their last game of the season was a 2-1 loss to Riverdale.

Thursday’s games:

Fayette County Tigers vs. Stephenson Jaguars, 7 p.m.

The Tigers have an overall record of 5-8-4 and a region record of 4-1-1. The team has been bolstered late in the season by a strong defense and great goaltending. At times, the boys have struggled producing offense. In fact, they only scored above two goals in a game twice. The Tigers have also allowed more goals (42) than they have scored (34).

Stephenson out scored their opponents 54-27. They have had a 6-3-1 record since the beginning of March and have posted four shutouts this season. They closed the season with a 5-1 win over Towers.

Starr’s Mill Panthers vs. Tri Cities Bulldogs, 7 p.m.

The Starr’s Mill Panthers are ranked eighth in AAAAA and have finished what started out as a shaky season strongly. They haven’t lost since March 4 when they fell to McIntosh for the first time in the history of the school. Since then they have gone 9-0-3 and have out scored their opponents 54-7. Overall, they have scored 65 goals and allowed only 20.

Tri-Cities is 6-5-2 and they too have finished the season on the right foot, going 5-1 in their last six games and out scoring their opponents 28-5 in that span. The one black mark against Tri-Cities is that they have not played a ranked opponent this season while Starr’s Mill has faced four ranked opponents and gone 0-1-3.

McIntosh Chiefs vs. Lakeside-Evans Panthers, 7:30 p.m.

The Chiefs enter the AAAA state playoffs with a target on their backs. They have been ranked at the top of the classification for much of the season and are riding a 10 game unbeaten streak. McIntosh, 9-0-1 in their last 10 games, has out scored their opponents 42-4 in that span. They have posted 12 shutouts this season and have scored 90 goals while allowing only 14.

Lakeside-Evans is 5-7-5 but they have to be a spooky first round opponent for Coach Bunky Colvin and the Chiefs because the Panthers closed the season with wins over ranked opponents Clarke Central (seventh) and Greenbrier-Evans (sixth). The Panthers have scored 29 goals but have allowed 26.

Sandy Creek Patriots at Greenbrier-Evans Wolf Pack, 6 p.m.

The Patriots are back in the state playoffs and it is thanks to an offense that can score quickly and solid goaltending. Though the Patriots struggled a bit down the stretch, going 2-3 in their last five games, they did ride a three game win streak in March. Unfortunately, Sandy Creek has allowed more goals (38) than they have scored this season (37).

Greenbrier-Evans, ranked sixth in AAAA, went 10-4-3 this season. The Wolf pack nearly doubled the offensive output of their opponents this year, 35-18, and posted six shutouts along the way. They closed the season with a 1-0 loss to Lakeside-Evans.

Whitewater Wildcats at Evans Knights, 6 p.m.

The Whitewater boys soccer team went 10-8-1 this season and had its shares of highs and lows. Among the highs were ties with McIntosh and a win over ninth ranked Chapel Hill but a 4-3 loss to Sandy Creek and two shutout losses to fourth ranked Woodward were among the lows. The Wildcats went 4-2-1 in their last seven games and they finished the season with a 1-0 win over Sandy Creek in the region 4-AAAA playoffs.

Evans went 12-5-1 this season with five of their 12 wins being shutouts. The Knights, which out scored their opponents 56-34 this season, had a six game win streak in March and has won three of their last four games this season.

Be sure to visit www.thecitizennews.com for playoff scores and updates.