Qualifying for the postseason is getting to be a hard habit to break for the Apalachee High School boys soccer team.
The Wildcats officially punched their ticket for the playoffs with a 2-1 win against Cedar Shoals Friday night, improving to 6-3 in region play in the process. The loss eliminated Cedar Shoals, who would have stayed alive with a win.
Guy Hunt scored Apalachee’s lone goal until the penalty kick session began. Richard Xiong made two key saves to help record the win.
“During the first few games this season I wasn’t sure we would have a chance to make it back to the playoffs,” said Wildcat coach Chad Hooper. “Then we had a loss to Flowery Branch and things looked dim. However, the guys worked together and we had some players begin to step up in addition to Guy.”
When Hunt had to miss a game due to penalty cards, it allowed other players an opportunity to show what they could do, Hooper said.
“That gave us some confidence that we weren’t just a one player team,” the coach said.
Players such as Christian Vasquez and Joseph Godina showed what they were capable of and, in the end, helped Hooper’s team make it back to the postseason.
Vasquez scored a hat trick against Madison County and the team scored six goals overall in the match Hunt did not play in. Even with one match remaining (against Habersham Central Friday), Hooper said his team is locked into fourth place. A win Friday would not change that. Still the coach wants to close out the regular season with a win.
“We are going to play to win it,” Hooper said. “We will go all out like we have all season. We will apply the same amount of pressure. We don’t want to go out and just throw the towel in. We may be facing Marist in the first round so we want to go in with as much momentum as possible.”
The first round of the postseason is set for Tuesday, April 26.
Hunt scored the team’s lone goal in regulation Friday while Carlos Canelas, Javier Crawford, Hunt, Mickey Lee and Daniel Sanchez added the penalty kicks to push the team back in the playoffs.
