The Peachtree Lady Patriots finished undefeated at 8-0 with a 3-0 win over the Henderson Lady Cougars in the DCSD Middle School Soccer Championships. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Peachtree’s defense and three second half goals propelled the Lady Patriots to a 3-0 victory over Region 2 rival Henderson to give Peachtree their first DeKalb County Middle Schools girls’ soccer title in three consecutive tries in a match played at Hallford Stadium on Thursday night.
Peachtree had lost in the title game the past two seasons but entered the championship match undefeated playing against the Lady Cougars in a rematch of their Region 2 regular season tilt won 5-0 by the Lady Patriots.
The two teams battled to a 0-0 tie at the half despite Peachtree getting eight shots on goal and limiting Henderson to no shots on goal.
Less than four minutes into the second (26:23) Peachtree’s Sophia Pristach got loose behind the defense to win a one-on-one battle with Henderson keeper Meryl Vaughan with a shot into the left corner for the 1-0 lead.
Henderson’s Genevieve Smith strikes a free kick during action against Peachtree. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Henderson had a pair of chances early in the second half. A shot with 27:04 to play was saved by Peachtree defender Vivian O’Brien who turned it away just in front of the left corner. Then with 25:50 to play and the opportunity to tie the match at 1-1 another Lady Patriot defender Juliana Martinez made a big play in front turning away another Henderson shot.
Just under five minutes later it was Pristach again as she took a pass from Juliana Martinez and knocked the ball into the net to give her team a 2-0 advantage with 21:37 to play.
With 15:43 remaining Peachtree’s Xianna Yee passed across to Raelyn Reed who nailed a shot from 20 yards out to push the lead to 3-0.
Peachtree’s Sophia Pristach was named the MVP of the girls’ middle school soccer championship match after scoring two goals in the 3-0 win. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Peachtree finished with 16 shots on goal with Henderson keeper Meryl Vaughan turning away nine of the shots and defender Gigi Uyeda another one.
Pristach was named the game’s Most Valuable Player after scoring two goals. It was a bit of redemption for the eighth grader as she gave up two goals while getting seven saves in the 2-0 loss to Chamblee a year ago.
Peachtree finishes the season undefeated at 8-0 and Henderson ends with a 6-3 record with two of the losses to Peachtree.
See link below for final Middle School Soccer standings: