Piedmont Soccer Teams Battle Tough Opponents

The Piedmont Academy Lady Cougars soccer team faced two quality opponents recently in Gatewood and Eastside.

The Lady Cougars fell to the Gatewood Lady Gators 7-0 and to the Eastside High School Lady Eagles 4-0.

“The girls played the two games short handed as we were missing seven players because of injury or school trips, but the players who competed gave it all they had and I’m proud of them for that,” said coach Michael Wilson. “I feel we came up short in both games because we had so little depth last week.”

In those two matches, several players who had not received as much playing time had the chance to be on the field.

In the home match against Gatewood, the Lady Cougars gave up five goals in a 10-15 minute span in the first half.

“Other than that we did a good job defensively,” Wilson said.

The addition of the contest against Covington’s Eastside, a Georgia High School Association member, was a result of the Lady Eagles needing an opponent for Senior Night.

“They reached out to us so they could have a game that night,” Wilson said.

Eastside scored its first game with seven minutes left in the first half and then added three goals in the final 20 minutes of the contest.

“I think it’s important now that we can play GHSA schools so we know we can compete and there is not a difference between us,” Wilson said. “Hopefully, it will carry over to next year and only help our confidence when we play our region games.”

With only three substitutes available, the Lady Cougars wore down by the end of the contest.

“If we would have had our entire roster the outcome would have been much closer and might have swung our way,” Wilson said. “I hope this games serves as a reminder to everyone on the team that we can play with anyone. We just have to compete the entire game.”

Anne Marie Hildebrant had a strong performance in goal keeping the game manageable as the heat began to tire out the Lady Cougars.

Taylor Patterson and Emily Mills fought hard to create chances throughout the game, their coach said.

“We were just unable to capitalize when we had those chances,” Wilson said.

Defensively, Morgan Whitely, Gracie Brittain and Mallory Boyd were each praised for their efforts.

Piedmont’s varsity boys soccer team fell 11-0 to a strong Gatewood opponent.

“The Gatewood boys are one of the best teams we’ve played all year,” Wilson said. “We played hard and competed the whole game. I was especially proud of the game played by Ian Boyd and Parker Clark. Both are showing good leadership skills.”

Despite a tough 2017 season, the Piedmont boys haven’t stopped battling, their coach said, despite being outmanned and overmatched in each game.