ACE girls win physical match with Bremen to reach state semifinals

The ACE girls soccer team punched its ticket to the state semifinals for the second straight season Monday night, defeating Bremen 4-0 at home with precise passing and solid defense in the third round of the GHSA Class A-Division I tournament.

It was the most physical game of the playoffs so far for ACE, as both the Gryphons and Blue Devils had yellow cards and some push-off fouls called in a rough-and-tumble opening game.

“There’s more work to be done. Very proud of their effort as a team, they’ve had a great week of practice and effort,” ACE head coach Robby Jones said. “(Bremen) are very physical. They have very fast players, especially the left wing gave us a lot of trouble. … It was a difficult battle both ways. Probably a hard one to ref, but they managed to do it well. I think the better team won.”

ACE proved more adept at handling the ball, though, as it controlled things at midfield to create good chances in the final third even if they did not always turn into goals. 

“Our calling card is being able to connect and pass in the midfield. We say, just climb the next rung in the ladder. We don’t need to send everything forward,” Jones said. “We did pretty well. … When we were passing well, we were difficult to handle.”

Kate Thomason scored two goals and had a brilliant pass to assist another, controlling the ball with poise on the front line for ACE to help the Gryphons score twice in the opening half and then fully control things in the final 40 minutes. 

The first score of the game encapsulated the Gryphons’ greatest strength. Thomason put a gorgeous pass on the money to Edy Powell, who poked it past the Bremen keeper with relative ease to put ACE up 1-0 just a few minutes in.

“She drew a lot of defenders and I thought she was gonna shoot, but instead she made a very square ball to her teammate — very unselfish — which set up Edy for a finish,” Jones said. “The weight of it, the direction of it was nice. Kind of like a Magic Johnson no-look pass, that’s what it felt like.”

Thomason scored the next two goals before Lily Bivins netted the final Gryphon score with only a few minutes left to cement the 4-0 victory, which put No. 2 ACE in line for a Final Four match against No. 3 Model.

It’s a significant alignment in the bracket, as Model sent ACE packing last season in the semifinals here in Macon. The rematch should make the playoff game even more intense, as Model went on the win the championship last year.

“It’s a huge game. I’m glad we’re playing here. I want to fix what happened last year,” Jones said. “It’s the same teams, the same round, in the same location. Other than that, we’re different — we’re completely different than we were last year. We’ve grown a lot. … We’re way more excited this time. We know (Model is) a great team. It’s gonna be a battle royale.”

After Thomason’s assist created the goal for Powell early, ACE went quiet for a bit as it missed a couple other chances despite great corner kicks from Lily Bivins. It looked like Bremen’s recovery on defense would send the battle into halftime 1-0 as both defenses played very well.

Then Thomason scored a goal of her own with just a few minutes left in the half. Her speed made all the difference, as a long drop kick from ACE keeper Macy Pierce set the table for Thomason to outrun Bremen’s backline and punch it in to make it 2-0.

After the break, the Gryphons took firm command of things when Thomason scored her second goal with about 30 minutes left. Bremen’s keeper Samantha Shumake — who had made some nice stops in the net thus far to keep things close — decided to rush forward to try and stop the ball as Thomason was dribbling into the box.

The quick-footed forward read the move perfectly and looped a soft, rainbow shot high in the air above Shumake’s head, which landed just in front of the goal and bounced softly into the net to make it 3-0.

From there, the Gryphons ran the show. Aside from a few more yellow cards and an ejection of a Bremen player late, the only other excitement came when Bivins scored the fourth ACE goal with about three minutes remaining.

The Gryphons will take on Model this Thursday at home.