ACE girls dominate Gordon Central in 10-0 playoff win

The ACE girls soccer team started its playoff run with a dominant victory, getting seven goals in the first half to force a shortened game before eventually snagging the 10-0 win over the Gordon Central Warriors to advance to the second round of the GHSA state tournament.

It was a show of strength for the Gryphons, who came into the postseason with the No. 2 seed in Class A-Division I after winning their region championship and going 17-1 in the regular season. After having some key players miss time, the all-around team win was the perfect thing to get ACE in rhythm in the opening round.

“It feels good because there’s a lot of distractions. We did Senior Night, there was a food truck, lots of people showed up for their first time seeing a soccer game here. We stayed focused and played unselfishly for the most part, and it paid off in a short amount of time,” head coach Robby Jones said.

Lily Bivins, Kate Thomason, Bayleigh Loosier, Hadassah Antoine, Sadie Tunnell and Edy Powell all scored goals for the Gryphons. Bivins had perhaps the best night of the group, netting four goals. She had the hat trick all wrapped up with her third goal about 10 minutes into the game.

That shot made it 4-0 early, as the Gryphons wasted no time opening the scoring. Bivins scored her first two goals roughly five minutes into the game, just about than one minute apart.

“We have the mentality that when one scores, we all score. You can tell that because the girls celebrate other people’s success. When you see that, you can tell that they’re true friends,” Jones said. “Yes, Lily scored four goals, but she doesn’t look at it that way. She thinks of it as, ‘my teammates put me in position to score.’ She also had four assists, so she put her teammates in position to score as well.”

After the Gryphons netted three more goals before the 20-minute mark in the first half, the teams elected to shorten the game and take halftime there before playing 20 more minutes. ACE polished off the win with three more goals, eventually getting the 10-0 mercy rule when Powell drove home the last goal with about four minutes remaining.

“I think the goal in the end, Kate could’ve scored. She could’ve shot it on goal, no one would’ve complained, but instead she decided to find a teammate across the box for a finish, so it was real nice,” Jones said. “Again it was unselfish. Find a teammate, get their confidence up, because Edy hadn’t played in a while.”

Antoine also scored two goals.

The win puts ACE on the right track as the Class A-Division I state tournament continues to unfold. The players celebrated after the 10th goal and enjoyed congratulating each other on their goals.

“It really encourages us, definitely emotionally to have our friends and family supporting us. I feel like we play a lot more confident knowing that they’re there to support us,” Thomason said. “I’m very excited and grateful for such a well-rounded team. We had tons of people scoring. It wasn’t just one of us.”

As if the playoffs weren’t motivation enough, ACE is looking to avenge their loss to Model in the Final Four last season. Both teams are once again highly-touted and seeking state championships.

“Knowing that we lost to Model on our field last year, it definitely gives us a lot of encouragement. Knowing we could eventually face Model in the Final Four again, we’re constantly getting better and constantly pushing ourselves to where we need to be,” Thomason said.

The Gryphons will play No. 15 Pepperell in the second round next week after the Dragons defeated the Central Chargers 5-0 in their first-round game.