Sherwood Christian boys soccer team falls in semifinals

ALBANY — The few players watching from the Sherwood Christian Academy bench waited for one more goal.

But in the closing minutes, Alleluia scored the clincher, put the game out of reach and took a 5-3 victory in the semifinals of the Georgia Independent Christian Athletic Association state soccer tournament Tuesday night at Sherwood Academy.

On a weird night where lightning was as much of a factor as Alleluia’s defense, the Eagles played catch-up after falling behind by two goals.

After heavy rain delayed the start by more than 30 minutes, the two schools played for 10 minutes before lightning sent them to the locker room again. Alleluia had built a 1-0 advantage on a questionable call by game officials which allowed the visitors to convert a penalty kick and grab a 1-0 advantage before the delay.

But following the long delay, Alleluia netted another goal to take a 2-0 advantage at halftime.

It was the second straight season in which the Eagles had their season end against Alleluia. Last year, Sherwood lost on penalty kicks in the state championship game.

Sherwood coach Jeremy Davidson knew coming back from a 2-0 deficit was going to be tough.

“Alleluia is super-athletic and a big team,” Davidson said. “They capitalized on our mistakes and took advantage.”

But the Eagles didn’t fold. They trimmed the deficit in half with a goal from Zachary Davidson off an assist from Landon Davidson before Alleluia answered less than two minutes later to claim a 3-1 advantage early in the second half.

Sherwood’s Odoey Koffie pulled the Eagles back to within a goal when he scored off another assist from Landon Davidson.

However, Alleluia answered again to take a 4-2 advantage before Samuel Orr pulled the Eagles within striking distance again with a goal to make it 5-3. But that was as close as Sherwood could get against Alleluia’s stout defense.

“I couldn’t me more proud of the guys,” Jeremy Davidson said. “They worked their tails off. After falling behind by two goals, they could have went belly up, but they fought back and scored that early goal in the second half which fired them up.

“We had a couple of mental lapses and a couple of calls that didn’t go our way. If we don’t have those, it might have been a different game.”