MOULTRIE, Ga. – After defeating Richmond Hill 3-2 on Friday night in their final Region 1-7A match of the season, the Packers varsity soccer team finished at 8-0 in the region and took home first place.
This was the first region championship since 2018, and it’s the first time in Packers soccer history that they won the region on their home turf.
The Lady Packers lost their game against the Wildcats 2-0, placing them in fourth seed for the state tournament.
During the first half of their game, the Lady Packers held off all advances from Richmond Hill and the game paused at 0-0.
Goalie Jacey Wetherington, stopped 16 shot attempts, including several where she had to either run out from the goal line or dive to just get her fingertips on the ball.
One shot on the Lady Packers goal early in the game was a team effort to keep the Wildcats from scoring.
After getting just ahead of Colquitt County players, Richmond Hill had a great line up on the goal. Wetherington ran out to try and snag the ball, but the Wildcat player passed it in a cross-shot, leaving the goal box wide open. Though this could have been an easy first point for the Wildcats, all defensive players on the Lady Packers rallied together and acted as a block in front of the goal and stopped the Wildcats from scoring.
In another great defensive play, Haylie Linsley, nicknamed by her team “Hip check Haylie,” did exactly that.
With 21 minutes left in the first half, Linsley stopped a breakaway by hip checking the Wildcat player and sent her to the ground. Then, with a powerful kick perfectly aligned with the sideline, she sent the ball flying towards midfield and kept the ball in bounds for her teammate who was waiting to receive the pass.
“This is the best game they have played,” said Lady Packers head coach Colby Simpson. “We have been connecting our passes and splits. The girls are encompassing what they are learning in practice and bringing it to the games. They are playing fast with good decisions.”
The second half of the Lady Packers game saw even more shots from the Wildcats, with the majority of the half played on Colquitt County’s side of the field.
Though two goals were scored against Colquitt County, Wetherington still saved 20 shots on goal.
“This is Jacey’s first year as goalie,” said Simpson. “I approached her to become our goalie this season because she has a dual-sport background. Coming from being a softball player she has a lot of great skills that transfer to soccer. She did a great job this season.”
Richmond Hill received a yellow card with 12 minutes left in the game after a Wildcat player did a high kick and missed the ball, but connected with Lynnsey Luttrell’s face instead.
“She is doing okay,” said assistant coach Kim Luttrell. “The cleat got her in the gums. If it would have been the lip it could have been a lot worse. Mostly, she just got shook up.”
When the Packers played their game against Richmond Hill it started off a bit rocky.
From the starting whistle the Wildcats played aggressively and it was obvious they were determined to win.
Maybe it’s because the Packers had been undefeated up until that point, but it took them a good 20 minutes to get their heads into the game.
“When we started it wasn’t pretty,” said Packers head coach Jimbo Jarvis. “Richmond Hill is a solid team. We finally woke up and started playing toe-to-toe with them.”
By the time they really started playing like the team they’ve been all season, Richmond Hill had scored two goals and the Packers had a lot of ground to make up for.
The Packers scored their first goal with 15 minutes left in the first half.
Luke Brogdon headbutted the ball past the Wildcat goalie following a Packers indirect kick from just beyond the midfield line.
This is when the game really became intense as the energy on the field changed.
The Packers got hungry for the win.
Just minutes later, after a corner kick, Lee Duvergel had a single touch on the ball before it even hit the ground and tied the score at 2-2.
Then, with four minutes left in the half, the first of four red cards of the game was given to Richmond Hill for aggressive play.
Not letting their teammates tumble deter them, the Packers, within a minute of the red card, scored their third goal, this time by Bryan Ortiz.
The halftime whistle paused the game at 3-2.
The second half may have not seen any goals, but it was an intense 40 minutes as the Wildcats desperately tried to regain the advantage, and the Packers shot them down every time.
As the clock ticked down, both teams started to play a little frantically and each received yellow and red cards throughout the half.
Richmond Hill received a yellow card for a slide from behind, while the Packers got a yellow card for aggressive play.
The remaining three red cards were all given in the final 10 minutes of the game, one to Richmond Hill and two to Colquitt County.
The Richmond Hill red card as well as one of the Colquitt County red cards were again given due to aggressive play.
“That was a straight red card because he didn’t have a prior yellow card,” said Jarvis. “We still don’t know the infraction and will have to wait until the ref writes it up to know if he is suspended for one game or two.”
Anytime a player receives a red card, they must be benched for the next game, sometimes two depending on how serious the infraction is.
A red card can be given one of two ways: a straight red card if the referee feels the infraction was intentional and could cause serious damage to a player or if it’s a handball from someone other than the keeper to stop an obvious goal; or two, if it’s the players second yellow card.
The latter is how the second red card was given to the Packers after a Colquitt County player taunted Richmond Hill when they knocked over the Wildcat player and stopped a breakaway.
“There are a lot of emotions out on that field,” said Jarvis. “Tons and tons of work go into that 90 minutes of soccer and sometimes the emotions get the better of them. I talked to them about it, but I had to also remind myself they just won the region and having three unanswered goals against Richmond Hill is amazing. It’s a bittersweet win.”
After the game, the entire Packers team chased Jarvis around the field and when they finally corned him, they dumped the customary bucket of water on his head.
The Packers and Lady Packers have one more non-region home game Saturday night against Lee County before they begin their state tournament.