Gilmer High opened its soccer season with four wins.
The GHS Bobcats and Lady Cats hosted Fannin County last Tuesday, and the Rebels were saddled with a pair of losses. Following the Lady Cats’ 2-0 shutout victory, the Bobcats won, 4-2.
Murray County was in town two days later, and the visiting Indians endured the same fate. After a stellar performance to open the season, Lady Cat Sophia Lykins kept the goals coming en route to their 3-2 victory.
The Bobcats tallied the game’s lone goal in the first half off a set piece for a 1-0 triumph.
Lady Cats’ head coach Adam Palmer was happy to begin the season with a victory. He noted that plenty of new faces took the field to start the 2023 campaign.
“It was a complete team effort. Our defense and midfield maintained service to our forwards throughout the game,” he said.
“We started five freshmen and understood there may have been some challenges, but they really stepped up and made an immediate impact in the game.”
Palmer noted that Lykins netted both goals, which began in the midfield with Faith Goodwin. She found Yenifer Lopez down the wing, and Lykins sent her crosses into the back of the net.
Goalkeeper Angelica Lopez-Castenada made a great save in the last five minutes to secure the shutout.
“We also want to make a huge shout out to Gilmer County for showing up and supporting in numbers the high school soccer program. It created a very fun and energetic atmosphere and helped propel our team to victory,” Palmer said.
Versus Murray, Lykins was back at it again. Her first two goals led to a 2-2 tie in the second half. She then hammered home a penalty to secure the victory.
“The girls showed a lot of grit, and they fought and salvaged a win, Palmer said. “Despite sickness and poor playing conditions, Lopez-Castenada maintained her composure to hold Murray to two goals, thus allowing the penalty to secure the win. Murray County came to play. It was a battle of the second half for the win.”
For the Bobcats, Fannin struck first six minutes into the game. GHS responded with 15 minutes left in the half. Senior Camden Lyles received a diagonal through ball from Jorge Flores and tucked his shot inside the right post.
Five minutes later, a long throw into the box was controlled by senior Domingo Lucas-Velasquez. He laid off a pass to freshman forward Alex Tercero, who fired a shot from just inside the 18-yard box.
Gilmer added a third goal 20 minutes into the second half. Lyles passed to Lucas-Velasquez, who controlled the ball and volleyed it into the back of the net.
Fannin drew within a goal with 10 minutes to play with a 25-yard shot.
However, GHS added an insurance goal just three minutes later. A long shot taken by Flores deflected off the Fannin goalkeeper, and forward Cristian Oxlaj was there to meet the ball and score Gilmer’s fourth goal.
“Overall, we are still trying to find ourselves, and we played with great effort and executed the game plan,” said head coach Taylor Johnstone. “With this being our first game of the season, I think we were nervous at the beginning of the match, but settled down. There were times we forced passes when we didn’t need to.
“We did not win the possession battle and that will be a focus at our upcoming training. This year we have had many discussions about controlling what you can control, we can always control our effort, we can always control our assignment, and we have to do our best to control our technique.”
Against Murray, Gilmer scored just ahead of halftime. A 55-yard free kick from defender Noah Turner found teammate Keby Puac deep inside the box. His volley sent the ball across the face of the net where Connor Seim was awaiting to knock it across the goal line.
“Our team motto this year has been to ‘adapt and overcome,’” Johnstone said. “We have been at a disadvantage due to the weather and field construction (at Huff-Mosley), but we have shown we can adapt to play anywhere, give us a ball, lines and goals and we’re ready to play.
“I loved to see all the support in the stands, and it is much appreciated.”