Sports

Dream over for Terrell Academy

• A strong start by Trinity Christian spells doom for the Terrell Academy’s girls soccer team in the GISA Class A/AA semifinals Tuesday in Macon.

Scott Chancey

MACON — Terrell Academy girls soccer coach Patrick Cuff refused to fret about his team’s 7-1 loss against Trinity Christian in the GISA Class A/AA semifinals Tuesday night at Cavalier Fields.

Instead, he referred to the progress his team made as an even larger stepping stone than the one it took in 2005 when the Lady Eagles also reached the Final Four.

“This is a bigger stepping stone by far,” said Cuff, who was not the coach in 2005. “(Finishing) with a 15-2 record, we’ll look back on this a lot better down the road. We didn’t play our best game, but they played hard, and that’s all I can ask for.”

Trinity Christian (15-5) plays Frederica Academy — a 10-0 victor against Pinecrest in the other semifinal -— in Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. championship match at Cavalier Fields.

Lady Eagles seniors such as Morgan Donaldson and Julie Davis also feel this was a season the Lady Eagles can build on.

“We set the ultimate goal and we fell short, but we’re proud of how far we came,” Donaldson said.

That consolation is something Cuff hopes his players will look back on in due time.

“One of our goals was getting here,” Davis said. “We didn’t go out the way we wanted to, but that’s the way it ends, sometimes.”

Unfortunately for Terrell, this one nearly ended before it ever began.

The Lady Eagles trailed, 5-0, at halftime, and scored their only goal early in the second half by eighth-grader Alex Barfield, assisted by Donaldson. Trinity Christian’s Chelsea Carter scored all three of her goals during the first half, and Anna Claire Knight added two goals and three assists while their offense made the first half miserable for Terrell Academy freshman goalkeeper Millie Foster. Trinity Christian outshot Terrell Academy, 17-6, for the match.

Terrell Academy had a chance to take the lead during the first four minutes when a pass from Davis to Marlee Locke just missed its mark. Minutes later, Knight scored her first goal, kicking into the left corner of the net off a Carter assist for a 1-0 lead. Just more than 10 minutes later, Carter scored unassisted, and then added another on Knight’s second assist 29 minutes into the first half.

“I thought we calmed down after the first few minutes and once we scored the first goal, we started finding open people better,” Trinity Christian coach Aaron George said. “We probably finished well after that better than we had finished all year.”

Trinity Christian also attacked seemingly nonstop from its first goal until halftime, maneuvering the ball past the Lady Eagles’ defense, leaving Foster as the last hope for a stop. Foster, however, had her share of good saves, including one against the Lady Crusaders’ Lauren Weigel at close range.

Knight scored off a Sarabeth Bozeman assist, and then passed the ball to Carter for her third goal of the match and a 5-0 lead. To make matters worse, Davis injured her left knee in a collision and was yellow-carded, not returning because of her injury until there were just more than 13 minutes left in the match. Cuff, feeling the yellow card was undeserving, argued with the referee and received a warning.

“That was not worth a yellow card, and I did what I felt was right in arguing,” Cuff said.

At halftime, the coach challenged his Lady Eagles team and they responded with Barfield’s goal three minutes into the second half.

“It was pretty big,” Barfield said. “I was excited and nervous at the same time because I wanted it to go in.”

Trinity Christian, however, put a halt to whatever momentum the Lady Eagles had with goals by Bozeman and Ansley Chappell.

NEXT LEVEL

While Davis and Donaldson hugged after Terrell Academy’s loss, Davis said, “It’s not over.”

Indeed it is now.

The two will sign letters-of-intent at 9 a.m. today with Andrew College’s soccer program.

“It’s exciting because Julie and I had been lifelong friends and we had talked about playing in college together before,” Donaldson said. “Soccer is our favorite sport, and it’s a dream come true for us to keep playing together.”

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