River Ridge claims first state title, defeats Sprayberry for 6A championship

The River Ridge Knights boys soccer team captured their first Georgia High School Association state championship in program history after they defeated the Sprayberry Yellow Jackets 3-0 in the Class 6A title game.

After finishing up last season as runner-ups, the Knights found themselves in familiar territory in Thursday's match having to play nearly 60 minutes down a man after their goal keeper drew a red card, an incident similar to what the Knights faced in last years championship game.

However, Thursday's results were different for the Knights as they stayed aggressive despite the ejection and would take a 1-0 lead in the first half. With the second half underway, River Ridge would tack on their second goal to take a 2-0 lead about 10 minutes into the half and would get an exclamation goal from Kingston Courts with less than five minutes remaining in the match.

"I'm just so proud of these guys, I love these guys. We're a program that six years ago, we're winning five games and struggling to even keep games close," River Ridge head coach Phil Thomas said after Thursday's win. "We had a mission at the very beginning of the season, we were going to get back here, we're going to win this thing and they did an awesome job tonight," Thomas added.