Allatoona Advances to Quarterfinals

Despite surrendering an early goal and playing in stormy conditions, ’s girls soccer proved it could possibly go far in the Class 3A state playoffs.

The Buccaneers improved to 19-1 with their eighth-straight victory by beating the visiting Chestatee War Eagles of Gainesville, 3-1, Tuesday. Allatoona will play the winner of the Spalding County-Harlem game Friday.

Chestatee sophomore forward Alexis Rebollar scored the game’s first goal on an 18-yard boot at the 17-minute mark. It was Rebollar’s 36^th goal of the season.

“I messed up and the ball was just really slippery,” Allatoona goalkeeper Sarah Craig said. “I should’ve caught it, but it was so slippery.”

The scrappy Buccaneers quickly fought back to tie the game. Allatoona’s Willough Davis scored her first of two goals at the 30-minute mark and Suzanne Arafa grabbed the lead with another goal seven minutes later to give the home fans reason to cheer on the soggy night with a 2-1 halftime lead.

Davis’ stunning second goal of the evening clinched the victory. Following a handball violation by Allatoona, Chestatee failed to capitalize on the free kick and Davis soon found herself sprinting from a cluster of players at midfield. She dribbled the ball 55 yards before kicking it 12 yards past diving War Eagle goalie Vanessa Chavez with 13:30 remaining in the game for Allatoona’s third goal.

“I knew I had to get the ball off quickly because we were going to collide,” Davis said of Chavez. “The moment I saw the ball go in when I was on the ground was awesome. That was definitely the icing on the cake.”

Fiery third-year Allatoona coach Bill Perry said the key to his team’s victory was the strong defense of midfielders Morgan Smith and Allie Giresi on Rebollar, who Perry called a “goal scoring machine.” The Buccaneers’ resilience and aggressive offense played an equally significant role as Allatoona dominated the match offensively.

Allatoona outshot the War Eagles 16-4 in the second half.

“I don’t know how much we shot, but it should’ve been more,” Perry told his players in their post-game huddle. “Offense kept chipping and chipping away. Good job!”

Chestatee’s Rebollar was impressed with the Buccaneers' hustle throughout the game.

“We didn’t go to the ball,” she said. “First of all, the other team played really well and distributed the ball well. They’ll get pretty far, maybe Final Four.”

War Eagle coach Mark Dunn also was taken by Allatoona’s tenacity.

“Once we got 1-0, then they turned it on,” the six-year coach said, whose team ended the season 15-5. “I have to hand it to them because they came back and got the tie and then took the lead."

As he stood in the rain outside the team's bus, Dunn decided to shrug off the sting of the loss.  

“It was a state playoff game,” he said. “It was fun and someone has to get knocked off.”