ACE girls advance to Elite Eight with 5-0 victory against Fitzgerald, will face East Laurens at home

As the postseason progresses, competition gets better.

That was the case when ACE Charter hosted Fitzgerald in a GHSA Class A-Division I girls soccer second-round meeting on Thursday.

“They had a lot of speed at certain spots,” ACE head coach Robby Jones said. “They had not only the speed at center back, they had speed up top. They were very physical. It was difficult to deal with.”

Well, it depends on what the definition of “difficult” is.

The Gryphons got goals from four different players and weren’t threatened much at the net en route to a 5-0 win Thursday over Fitzgerald in the second round matchup, advancing to the Elite Eight just as they did last year.

“It keeps teams on their toes,” Jones said of the balance. “Who’s going to hurt you? You have to account for everybody.” 

ACE improved to 17-3 while Fitzgerald’s season ended at 10-8. The Gryphons will stay at home for the Elite Eight against East Laurens, a Region 2-A-Division I rival.

“I’m glad they have to come here, but they’re a very good team,” Jones said. “They have speed, they rotate a lot of players. If we take them lightly, we’re in trouble.”

Home is good for ACE, which is now 9-2 at Perkins Field. The Gryphons have hosted nine of their 13 shutouts. Travel wasn’t good for Fitzgerald, which finished 1-6 on the road.

It was a fairly normal night for the Gryphon, who scored early, then got better play from Fitzgerald before snagging a few goals in a short time to take control.

“The question was how much the ref was going to allow,” said Jones after his team scored at least five goals for the 10^th time to help make for a nice 21^st anniversary night for Jones and wife Courtney. “I thought he allowed a lot of physicality. You’ve got to stay consistent. We made a few adjustments and we settled in.”

Lily Bivins scored on a penalty kick 10 minutes into the action, and then play settled into back-and-forth, with ACE possessing it more but unable to get many quality shots.

Midway through the first half, Edy Powell broke the drought with a shot up the middle, sophomore Bayleigh Loosier — back late this season after recovering from an ACL injury — with the assist.

Kate Thomason put in ACE’s 100^th goal of the season, thanks to some weak hands at goal, as her shot was blocked but had enough velocity to push through the keeper’s hands and fall in.

That made it 3-0 with 14:49 left in the half.

Loosier got in the scoring column with 3:59 remaining while sliding and slipping but driving it in with an impressive right-footed shot, Thomason getting credit with the assist, and ACE took a 4-0 lead into intermission.

Loosier and senior Alex Sabathne are back only recently from knee issues, adding to the Gryphons’ depth.

“I didn’t expect both of them to be back, to be honest, but I’m glad they are,” Jones said. “They both had strict rehab plans It takes a lot of hard work to get back. That’s a testament to their rehab plan and hard work.”

The Gryphons stayed loose and needed less than two minutes into the second half to add to the margin, Thomason’s shot with some eyes and juice finding the back of the net.

Jones began substituting more, gaining experience of greater priority than widening the margin. ACE’s defense kept goalies Macy Pierce and Grace Pinholster pretty bored all evening.

“We started the game with one group of 11, finished with an entirely different 11,” Jones said. “Everybody is getting opportunities. They understand what we’re trying to do.”