ACE girls defeat Rabun County in dominant opening-round playoff win

There wasn’t much suspense, and it was a win like so many of the other 15 this season.

After rushing over to greet family and friends and take a picture, ACE Charter’s girls soccer team reconvened in the far corner for the post-match breakdown.

About three or four times, they let loose with shrieks and screams of joy.

There were some game honors handed out, and then the big news — the booster club was buying dinner.

That capped a good evening for ACE, which stormed out to take control in the first half en route to a 7-0 win Thursday over Rabun County in a GHSA Class A/Division I playoff meeting.

ACE improved to 16-3, and will host No. 15 Fitzgerald — a 4-3 winner over Woodville-Tompkins — next Thursday.

Backup goalkeeper Grace Pinholster, a sophomore, earned noise from her teammates as the man of the match. Another bout of applause came with the honorable mention man selections of Bella Peek and Ella Goff, both freshmen.

“This team is special and unique and they really rally around each other,” head coach Robby Jones said. “We have a very healthy culture right now as a team supporting each other.”

The shutout completed an unusual afternoon at Perkins Field.

First, lightning delayed the start almost an hour. Then the late start was moved up because the weather and lightning cleared quicker than expected.

“There was beautiful sportsmanship and a beautiful opportunity,” Jones said. “We turned a negative into a positive by bringing our national anthem quartet inside to sing in front of both teams, and the acoustics were beautiful.”

After the ACE men’s quartet was done, it was time to warm up.

“The teams decided to warm up together line-dancing,” Jones said. “Just the kids having fun. Beautiful sportsmanship.”

Then the action started, with both teams coming out physical. Rabun County earned three yellow cards by the time the night — one of players regularly bouncing off each other and sprawling out on the turn — was over.

Rabun County finished 4-10 overall with a 3-4 record in Region 1, with six losses by two goals or less.

“We take them seriously, because we know Rabun County, they care about their athletics, because they have (Georgia quarterback) Gunnar Stockton,” Jones said with a smile. “Obviously they care. They’re proud of their athletics.”

On still-damp turf, the Gryphons controlled possessions but needed some time to convert them.

“It rained a little bit, so it’s slick on this turf,” Jones said. “It plays really fast. It’s still hard. It just skids and moves faster, so it took 10 minutes to adapt to it.”

About two minutes after her shot from the left side was stopped and a half minute after another shot skipped just past the net, Lily Bivins emerged from a traffic jam after a corner kick and drilled it down the middle, breaking the scoreless game at the 28:36 mark.

As is often the case with ACE, once the seal was broken, it got shredded. All of 96 seconds later, Kate Thomason beat a defender deep downfield and crossed it on the money to Edy Powell for a fairly easy goal only a few feet away from the net.

Powell needed less than a half minute for her second goal, courtesy of a pass from Bivins and an ill-advised gamble by the Rabun County keeper to come out to defend and leave an open goal. Just like that, the Gryphons had three goals in just less than two minutes.

“It took us about 10 minutes to kind of settle in and we were able to get a couple quick goals just from a lot of pressure,” Jones said.

Rabun County wasn’t able to get much going offensively, and the Wildcats earned a pair of yellow cards.

“They did have some physical challenges,” Jones said. “I think they got a little frustrated.”

ACE needed a whole three minutes to make it 4-0 on Bivins’ penalty kick. Senior Wade Howard was the recipient of a Thomason pass to make it 5-0 at the 15:35 mark, about four minutes before Bivins finished off her hat trick evening with an assist from Bayleigh Loosier.

Slayton Marbut set up the Gryphons’ final goal with a pass between two defenders, as freshman Bella Peek drilled a 30-yarder just past the midway point of the second half.

Getting out of the game healthy was a positive, almost as much as how many Gryphons played.

“We probably dressed 22,” Jones said. “We definitely played them all. Everybody got a lot of minutes. We talk about planning versus preparing. You plan for certain things to happen, but then life comes in and, are you prepared?

“Are your backup defenders prepared? Ours are. Is your backup goalie prepared? Ours is.”

And that gets you man of the match.