The varsity soccer squads at Habersham Central High School each picked up big region wins over Gainesville High School in comeback fashion on a rainy Tuesday night in Mt. Airy.
Both HCHS programs, in terms of records, stand tied for first place in the region standings and continue their march toward a region title this Friday with an away match at North Forsyth High School.
Girls: Habersham Central 3, Gainesville 1
The visiting Lady Red Elephants (6-4, 2-4 Region 8-AAAAAA) slotted the ball into the net less than 15 minutes into the match, pinning the hosts into a hole to climb out of over the next 65 minutes of play.
HCHS (5-2-1, 4-1) would get back on even footing and back on top of the game before the halftime whistle, never relinquishing the lead and even adding on another in the second half.
With 3:09 left on the clock in the first half, junior Paisley Cathey put on a herculean effort as she collected the ball around midfield and then commanded her way through the Gainesville defense.
At the goal, Cathey put the ball past a sliding defender and had her shot knocked down by the Lady Red Elephants’ keeper. The ball landed right back at the junior’s feet and the follow up was true, finding the back of the net and getting her team back on level footing.
Just a minute and 26 seconds later, Cathey again would find the back of the net. This time, she was fed a through ball by freshman Madie Wilbanks just outside the 18-yard box and the junior was able to slide her shot past the keeper with ease.
“She’s a special player. When it boils down to it, she’s our best player,” HCHS Head Coach Jeff LaBarbera said. “She’s the one we look to and, when we need her to step up in big, key moments, she usually does. The last five minutes of the first half, she scored two, those were big moments for us tonight.
“She stepped up and put us on her shoulders again, like she always does, and made it happen,” he continued.
Despite having the 2-1 lead at the halftime break, LaBarbera called for his team to give a little bit more.
“I feel like we competed at times,” LaBarbera said. “We still weren’t playing the way we train in practice, so I was just trying to get that out of them more.”
Senior Addi Banks added the third goal for good measure in the 69th minute of play, cementing the victory for the Lady Raiders.
HCHS earned a corner and the headed effort on goal was parried away by the Gainesville keeper. The ball landed back at the feet of Banks, who had no issues finding the bottom right corner of the goal with her left foot.
LaBarbera said his team is “either hot or cold up top” and it depends on the night as to whether they’re attacking well.
“If we’re hot tonight, in the first 10-15 minutes, it’s 3-0, you know,” he said. “We’re working it hard every day, just trying to replicate the game scenario and trying to get our attackers involved in the play more and getting quality chances and shots off. It just depends on the night.”
The head coach said his team is trying to find its identity up front after losing a “special goal scorer” in 2023 graduate Sarah Clark.
“Our defense is rock solid, our midfield is really strong,” LaBarbera said. “We’ve been struggling to replace (Clark) to be quite honest. We’re really trying to break out of that ‘missing Sarah’ phase and start taking responsibility for ourselves up top.”
Following results on Tuesday, the Lady Raiders hold a tie for the top spot in region play with Jackson County High School. Their opponent Friday night, North Forsyth High School, is nipping at their heels with a 3-2 region record.
North Forsyth is the final opponent on the first round through the region slate for HCHS.
“For us, personally, if we just win the next seven (games), we win it. That’s been the message,” LaBarbera said. “One game at a time. North Forsyth is going to be good. It’ll be a test for us to see where we stack up.”
The Lady Raiders of HCHS will kick off against the Lady Raiders of North Forsyth at 6 p.m. Friday in Cumming.
Boys: Habersham Central 2, Gainesville 1
The Raiders (6-1, 4-0) played the role of cardiac kids and remained perfect in region play with completing the season sweep of Gainesville (3-6, 2-3) in their 2-1 victory Tuesday.
After giving up a goal to the counter-attacking Red Elephants within the first 43 seconds of play in the first half, HCHS pushed its luck to score twice inside the final 10 minutes.
The two goals for the Raiders were produced within 16 seconds of game time of each other with one connection: the right boot of senior Owen Wallace.
Wallace stood over a corner kick, picking out his target for the best chance at heading in a goal to tie the game after nearly 73 minutes. With a solid delivery in, fellow senior Brody Tyree rose up and headed the ball past the Red Elephants’ keeper to bring the game level.
Just seconds off the clock and a minute of real time celebrating, Wallace received the ball at the top of the 18-yard box with his back to goal.
Without hesitation, a back-heel flick led the ball into the path of a sliding David Garrido. The junior was able to guide the ball past the oncoming keeper, over the goal line and into the back of a ruffling net.
The Raiders were stymied by a relaxed Gainesville squad that was willing to sit back into its defensive position, not overly attack HCHS and risk giving up counterattacks.
“I think when you come out against Gainesville, you have a ton of energy. We were on it and we saw they weren’t really going to come at us,” Raiders’ Head Coach Ric Wallace said. “That kind of lulls you into the false sense that you have more time.”
Wallace said he talked to his team about the Red Elephants having guys that were capable of converting if given the opportunity on a counter.
“You could see (Gainesville) wanted to sit back even more and make life difficult. We were having a tough way through and we left a lot of goals in the first half on the doorstep,” Wallace said. “When you leave those things out there against good teams, they’ve got guys that can hurt you and that’s what happened in that first minute of the second half.”
Even though the Raiders were just one goal down, Wallace said it seemed at times that it just wasn’t meant to be his team’s night. But once somebody made a play – coincidentally his son connecting with Tyree for the header on the corner – the team responded in a big way.
“(The Red Elephants) started lifting a little bit and you felt like ‘if somebody would make a play…’ We talked about that at halftime, somebody was going to have to make a play,” Wallace said. “I certainly felt like we were deserving of the win. I thought we were the better side.”
Now the Raiders turn their focus to North Forsyth for Friday night’s matchup of unbeaten teams in region play, with both coming together to determine who will sit atop the region standings alone.
“They’re very good, they’re undefeated and they score goals,” Wallace said. “They’ve got a two-headed monster in attack. We’re going to have our work cut out for us. I think it may be one of those games where they’re not going to sit back on us and that may open up space for us to find our way through and maybe create more chances.”
North Forsyth was able to beat HCHS twice last season, so this game will have a lot on the line, but none more meaningful that sitting beside that number 1 in the region standings at the halfway point of the region slate.
“They beat us both times last year in good, competitive matches. They’ve got good players, but we’ve got some experience now,” Wallace said. “It’s where you want to be finishing up the first round through (the region schedule) and it coming down to them. We’ll see them again in the very last region game of the year, too.
“We’ve just got to keep plugging, keep trying to do what we do and build on it.”
The matchup of Raiders will kick off at 8 p.m. Friday in Cumming.
