Veterans teams set for home matches
The Veterans boys soccer team crossed a major hurdle last week when it escaped the first round of the GHSA Class AAAA playoffs for the first time in three seasons with a 6-0 win over Liberty County.
Veterans had fallen the past two seasons in heartbreaking fashion on penalty kicks, but with Grady (12-4-1) traveling to Kathleen on Tuesday, there is little room for relaxation.
The Knights are battle-tested, finishing second in Region 6-AAAA, which features both state finalists from a year ago in St. Pius and Cross Keys. Grady split with both of its region rivals this year in a pair of one-goal matches.
Veterans (15-4) will need big games from its midfield combo of Logan Luque, Garrett Roff and Andrew Zubowicz in possession as they attempt to control the pace of play and look for opportunities to go forward and find sophomore striker Max Wilkins, who recorded a hat trick against Liberty County.
The Veterans girls head into Wednesday’s second-round game against St. Pius in the unfamiliar role of the underdog despite being a higher-seeded team and hosting in Kathleen. Accustomed to often waltzing over Region 2-AAAA opponents, the Warhawks (17-2) finished unbeaten in region play for the fifth consecutive season.
The three-time defending state champion Golden Lions (14-4-2) represent a significant step up in competition. Veterans fell 9-2 in last year’s quarterfinal against Marist, the team that defeated St. Pius for the Region 6-AAAA championship for the second consecutive season and also the opponent that St. Pius extracted revenge upon in the 2015 state title tilt.
Fortunately for the Warhawks, the memory of last year’s playoff loss left with the graduation of a senior-laden team. The 2016 edition features 17 freshmen and sophomores, with just two seniors. Freshmen Danielle Coumbs and Maranda Krirat contributed four of Veterans’ eight goals in an opening-round shutout of Thomson a week ago.
“I’m an honest coach,” Veterans head coach Haley Walker said. “I’ve told them that it’s not going to be easy at all, but they’re beatable. We’ve seen their weaknesses and our goal is to counter on those weaknesses and expose those early.”
Walker’s young players likely will have to withstand significant stretches of the game without possession of the ball. Her message this week has been to move on from mistakes and bring an intense style of play to pressure the Golden Lions into their own miscues.
“We fight hard,” Walker said. “Young players are going in there ready to fight, but we might not know what hit us at first. If we’re not careful they can expose a lot of our holes early, and that’s why we’ve been working on our minds the past couple of weeks. It’s going to be a mental test. Can we withstand the pressure and keep up with the pace of what’s to come? It’s definitely going to be a different kind of ballgame than what we’ve seen.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 8:18 PM with the headline "Veterans teams set for home matches."