Campbell battles through familiar territory, defeats North Paulding to advance to GHSA 7A second round
The Georgia High School Association soccer state championship tournament got underway this week and on Wednesday, the Campbell Spartans hosted the North Paulding Wolfpack in boys Class 7A first round action. While the Spartans ended the regular season claiming the GHSA 7A Region 2 title, they entered Wednesday's matchup looking to get back into the win column and regain momentum for the playoffs, however, the task would not come easy as they hosted a Wolfpack team riding a five game game win streak.
As the first half got underway, the Spartans would be the more controlling team of the period and would eventually strike first at the midway point as a Sohan Patel goal, assisted by Jaycee Carpenter would give them a 1-0 lead. With there backs against the wall, North Paulding would equalize about eight minutes later as Dominic Negley would score the Wolfpack's first goal to tie the match at 1-1 with 11:33 remaining in the half. In the second half, both teams would get their fair share of shots to take the lead but time would eventually expire and send the match into overtime.
Unfortunately for both clubs though, overtime would not start for nearly 30 minutes as a weather delay would halt the start of the extra periods, but once underway, despite Campbell getting multiple shots on goal, the period would end with the match still tied at 1-1, forcing a second overtime period. Once underway, the Spartans would need just two minutes and eight seconds to regain the lead as a throw in would lead to Patel's second goal of the night and a 2-1 Campbell lead with 7:52 remaining in the second extra period. North Paulding would have several attempts to equalize once again, however time would run out as the Spartans picked up the win.
"It's nothing the boys haven't seen before," Campbell head coach, Troy Connolly said after Wednesday's match, which marked the seventh time this season the Spartans found themselves in an overtime matchup. "I think that helped a lot, even during the weather delay. We've been here before, we knew we had another goal in us and I'm just happy they showed the fight they've shown," Connolly added. With the win, Campbell will get set to take on the winner of South Gwinnett and Richmond Hill and Connolly said that "confidence" will be one of the biggest takeaways for the Spartans as they get ready for the second round.
"We prepared as well as we could have and that's what I'm happy about, we came in, there was no surprises, I think we executed what we wanted to do and I'm just happy with the result," Connolly said as he praised his players performance against a North Paulding team, which he credited for their ability to create frustration for their opponents and "are well coached to play to their strengths,". Connolly added. And now with round about a week away, Connolly says that the Spartans will take the next few days to clean up a few areas to help them have "more chances on goal".
