Lee County Lady Trojans advance in state soccer tournament

LEESBURG — Lee County’s Mackenzie Taylor knew just how important a goal would be.

Late in the Lady Trojans’ matchup with Marietta, Taylor broke free and went streaking down the field. She received a beautiful pass, took a couple of dribbles before sneaking the ball by the goalie and just inside the right post.

The goal, which came at the 11:02 mark of the first half, would be the only of the game and all Lee would need to beat Marietta 1-0 Wednesday night in the first round of the Georgia High School Association Class AAAAAA state soccer tournament at Trojan field.

“I saw a through ball and just ran with it,” Taylor said. “I saw the goalie on one side, so I just kicked it to the other corner. I was just thinking, ‘Please score, please score, please score.’ ”

The lone goal was fitting for how the game was played. It was a defensive struggle throughout with only one shot on goal in the first half.

The Lady Trojans had a couple of scoring chances in the first half but couldn’t convert.

Marietta’s only real threat came on an attempt that deflected off the goal before Lee’s Cassidy Norman made a save.

“It was tough,” Lee coach Dave Baltenberger said. “It really was a tough battle. They are a good team. It was a No. 2 seed versus a No. 3 seed, so you knew it was gonna be pretty equal.”

Baltenberger made a couple of halftime adjustments to open up the game in the second half and it worked.

Before scoring the goal, the Lady Trojans had multiple chances to put one in the net.

“We were both having a hard time scoring,” Baltenberger said. “We switched our goal scorer to up on top and she finished one. That was all it took.”

Marietta had the first scoring chance of the second half, but Norman thwarted it when she aggressively made a dive for the ball.

Not long after, the Lady Blue Devils received the game’s only free kick which was cleared by a Lee defender. The attempt came from just past midfield.

“At halftime, I told them to just keep playing,” Baltenberger said. “It was working for us, we just had to keep sticking our nose in there and it was going to happen. We knew one was all it was going to take.”

The Lady Trojans will play the winner of the Brookwood-Lassiter matchup on May 4.