After a promising 5-0 win over Alexander, the Lady Panthers felt confident going into their quarterfinal AAAAA soccer playoff game against Columbus.

It was a hot day last Friday with temperatures in the mid 80’s and not a cloud in the sky. Columbus took the early lead off a partially blocked shot by senior keeper Paige Betsill, and it fell to a Columbus player who tapped it in to gain a 1-0 lead.

The Lady Panthers responded quickly when junior Lauren Yoss threw it to junior Riley Clark, who powered past the Columbus keeper to even the score. Seven minutes later Clark was fouled and senior Chayla Park took the penalty kick and scored. A few minutes later, Columbus had a PK to even the score at 2-2.  The teams were tied at the half.

“We were playing well, but that was not good enough,”  sophomore Ashton Nowicki said.  “We needed to play better defense and play smarter offense.”

In the second half the defense was much better, led by senior Carly Pressgrove and junior Dylan Patterson. “We really did not want this season to end, so we played as hard as we could,” Patterson said.

After a few turnovers by Columbus, the Lady Panthers went to work on offense and scored in the 53rd minute as Clark rebounded the ball after a shot hit the post and tapped it in for an easy goal. After that, the Panthers kept the ball away from Columbus as much as possible and played great defense to seal the victory.

Their next game against Greenbrier in Augusta was hard fought as well. The start of the game wasn’t looking good as the Greenbrier Wolfpack jumped out to take a 2-0 lead in the first 30 minutes. The Panther defense dug in and didn’t allow another goal for the rest of the game.

The deficit was cut in half on a pass from Yoss to Clark for the header to  score the first Panther goal.

The second half was all Panthers. “We dug deep to turn the game around because we wanted to reach the state finals very bad,” Yoss said. Clark scored again when she tapped in a ball off a blocked shot. Columbus began to gain momentum, but the Panthers quickly shut down the Wolfpack as they pressed them to squeeze the ball out.

Kayla Feigenbaum was in on the next goal, which gave the Panthers their first lead of the game, 3-2. Columbus was trying to shift things around, but the Panther defense remained solid. Clark then capped off a hat trick in the final two minutes with her third goal to give the Panthers the 4-2 win.

The Lady Panthers, 17-5, play for the state championship tonight. They will face Northgate at 5 p.m. at Mercer University in Macon  in hopes of gaining their sixth state title.