Paideia Boys Fall to Walker on Penalty Kicks in Class A Final Four

Soccer can be a very cruel game, as head coach Eric Thomas explained following the Georgia High School Association Class A Final Four showdown between the Pythons and The Walker School Wolverines.

The soccer gods were particularly pitiless towards Paideia at Decatur High School's Bulldog Field Wednesday night.

After the squads battled back and forth for 80 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime, the Wolverines finally bested the Pythons 5-4 on penalty kicks, advancing to the Class A state championship and leaving the Pythons wondering what could have been.

"I thought we had all the chances in the world but we didn't finish them so good for them," said Thomas after the loss. "[Walker] should be proud of themselves. I didn't think that anyone on our team did something that hurt us but I think we just didn’t get that goal that we needed to win it."

The Pythons did capitalize on one of their countless scoring opportunities just eight minutes into the contest when senior Tim Brooks' header off of a corner kick beat the Walker goalkeeper to put Paideia in front early.

The advantage in possession fluctuated between the teams throughout the match, with both teams able to pin their opponent in the defensive third of their field for extended stretches of play.

Paideia remained ahead 1-0 for the rest of the first half and for much of the second until the 58-minute mark, when Walker's Jacob Smith broke loose from the Pythons defense with just goalkeeper Colin Shaw to beat.

Smith's first attempt on goal went straight into the chest of Shaw, but Smith collected the rebound and passed the ball into the empty Paideia net to tie the match at 1-1.

Paideia had several promising chances late in the game and in overtime, including a hard shot by Coleman Parks with 15 minutes left in regulation that nearly beat the Walker keeper at the near post.

However, with neither team able to break the deadlock after consecutive five-minute periods of overtime, the match would be decided from the penalty spot.

After the first Walker shooter beat Shaw to the left corner, Paideia’s first shooter, Alex Kirsch, had his shot blocked by Walker goal keeper Colin Mitchell, giving the Wolverines the 1-0 advantage.

From that point, all Walker needed to do was to make their four remaining penalty kicks and the Wolverines did just that, with the aforementioned Smith netting the fifth and final kick, a low, hard shot that beat Shaw to the right corner.

After the game, Thomas spoke about his team’s five graduating seniors, for whom the manner in which the Pythons lost Wednesday night was undoubtedly a hard pill to swallow.

"What I told the seniors was that they need to focus on all the great things they did this year and that they played with a lot of character," Thomas said. "They led the team and the team went further than it’s gone in awhile. I just told them to focus on their futures and that they’ll do great things."