The Long County Blue Tide soccer teams hosted the Harlem Bulldogs in a scrimmage game to kick off the 2024 season on Friday, Feb 2. The Lady Tide finished in a scoreless tie while the boys won 4-1 to avenge their first-round playoff loss from last season.
In the girls game, the Lady Bulldogs seemed to be in control for most of the game, especially in the early going.
They got off four shots on the Tide before the home team could even cross midfield. However, senior goalkeeper Leora Hyde played tough all night, not allowing a single ball to cross her.
The Tide finally got their offense going somewhat as they crossed midfield and pushed down the field, but just could not get anything in goal. They attempted just one shot in the first half while the Lady Bulldogs put up nine.
Long County was shorthanded in the game, missing forward Kyleigh Sizemore, defenders Kaiden Boshers and Myjah Fedon and goalkeeper Ciazia Powe due to other sports’ obligations.
This led the Tide to make some adjustments, which kept 2023 leading scorer Macey Higgason on the defensive side of the ball.
Stepping up in her place was freshman Jersi Lester, who took all three of the Tide’s shots in the second half. Her breakaway shot in the 51st minute went just too high while her open shot in the final two minutes of the game went wide right.
The Lady Bulldogs finished the game outshooting the Tide 18-4 while Hyde netted 17 saves in goal for the Tide.
The boys took the field as they faced off against the Bulldogs, who defeated the Tide 1-0 in the first round of the state playoffs last year.
It took until midway through the first half for either team to get much going as Victor Chihuahua pushed one through in the 24th minute.
Less than 60 seconds later, the Bulldogs tied the game on their only shot of the first half off a corner kick. However, just three minutes later Luis Hernandez pushed one through to take a 2-1 lead, where the score stood at the half.
The Tide outshot the Bulldogs in the first half 7-1.
Early in the second half, the Tide offense was aggressive as Chris Contreras’ shot was stopped short. Kamdyn Milliken made a great save two minutes later before Hernandez looked to increase the Tide’s lead.
His breakaway did not net another goal in the 48th minute. However, Chihuahua found paydirt again as he took a pass from Austine Mwita to make the score 3-1 in the 55th minute.
Milliken made another leaping save nine minutes later. The offense kept going for the Tide as Hernandez pushed another goal across to make the score 4-1 in the 71st minute.
A flurry of shots on the Tide goal a minute later did not net a goal for the Bulldogs. One shot hit the crossbar, Milliken leaped to knock another away before the Tide pushed the ball out and toward midfield.
The Tide will host Bradwell tonight.