LUDOWICI — The Long County Blue Tide soccer teams remain undefeated in region play after sweeping the Appling County Pirates on Tuesday, March 1. The girls pulled away in the second half with a 5-1 win while the boys dominated for a 10-0 win.
The Lady Tide and Lady Pirates went back and forth for a majority of the first half, with there only being a total of seven shots taken in the first half between the teams. It was a bit of speed that finally netted the first goal of the contest.
In the 31st minute, the Lady Tide got on the board as Yazmin Garcia took a nice pass and whizzed by the Pirate defenders, leaving only her and the keeper. Garcia snuck her shot past the keeper for the first goal.
The final minute of the half, the Tide added to their lead as Leslie Sotelo got past the last defender and open for the shot. The Tide led 2-0 at halftime.
The Lady Pirates found a little momentum early in the second half as they got near the goal and a shot bounced off a Tide player and into the net as the Pirates cut their deficit to just one.
It seemed as though the Lady Tide took offense to the Pirates getting on the board as freshman Morelia Ortega took over and scored just a minute later.
Ortega found herself in scoring position again just two minutes later as she got around the keeper, who came out of the box. Her second goal of the game made the score 4-1.
The Lady Tide wanted to put the game away quickly as Vilma Santos found her way into the net. A corner kick set up Santos for the goal, but not before Tainani Lucena’s assist to make the score 5-1.
In the 63rd minute, Santos just missed scoring her second goal of the game as it was barely tipped away by the keeper.
Leora Hyde has been a sure-handed keeper for the Tide all season, but was not needed too much in this game. When she was called on, however, she came up big. She made a sliding save in the 73rd minute to preserve her team’s 5-1 lead.
The Lady Tide are now 2-5 and 2-0 in region play with the second straight win.
The boys took to the pitch and immediately proved their dominance. It took less than 10 minutes for the Tide to get on the board and nearly less than five.
Chris Ortega’s early shot missed just left while Orlando Tellez-Baltazar’s was kicked out of the way. It was Victor Chihuahua who finally connected on a shot in the ninth minute.
The Pirates got their one and only shot of the first half off thanks to a free kick outside the box, but it sailed wide right of the goal. Ortega missed to the left again in the 19th minute.
The last 18 minutes of the first half were much more exciting on the scoring end as Gael Franco scored in the 22nd minute and a Solomon Medina shot was blocked, but kicked into the net by a Pirate player to give the Tide a 3-0 lead.
In the 38th minute, Franco got on the board again with a line drive from outside the box. The Pirates were hit with a penalty inside the box as David Flores lined up for the penalty kick with less than 20 seconds on the clock.
Flores’ kick connected as the Tide led 5-0 going into halftime.
Last week, the Tide defeated Brantley County 11-0 in the first half. They looked to get another mercy rule victory and it only took five minutes for them to score their sixth goal in the second half.
Alex Morales slipped past a few Pirate defenders and took a shot from just inside the box. Franco completed his hat trick with his third goal in the 48th minute.
Tellez-Baltazar missed getting on the board as his shot was barely over the crossbar less than a minute after Franco’s score.
The third time was the charm for Ortega as he pushed a shot past the keeper to give the Tide an 8-0 lead with 31 minutes still left to play.
The Tide would not need those last 31 minutes as Chase Giron scored four minutes later to put the team up 9-0. Carson Futch took a beautiful shot that likely would have been the make of the year had the Pirate keeper not made a great play to tip the ball over the crossbar.
Austine Mwita took a header off a corner and nearly finished the game off in the 66th minute. Luis Hernandez scored his first goal of the season as he flew past a few defenders and scored a nice goal in the 69th minute to put the Pirates away.
With the 10-0 victory, the Tide are now 6-1-1. They have only allowed one team to score all season.
The Blue Tide will travel to Pierce County on Friday, March 4 in a huge region matchup and will host the Tattnall County Warriors on Tuesday, March 8 in what could be a matchup for the region championship.