By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
GUYTON – Effingham County’s girls accomplished two goals with one well-timed victory in the Region 1-5A soccer tournament Friday night.
The visiting Rebels defeated South Effingham 2-1, to even its rivalry series for 2025, and at the same time qualified for the Class 5A state tournament for the first time in three years.
“At this point, I think we’re a completely different team than we were at the start of the season,” said ECHS first-year coach Madison McClenahan, whose squad has now won three of its last five games to raise its record to 5-9.
The Rebels advanced to play Greenbrier, a 10-0 winner over Bradwell Institute, in the region semifinals on April 15.
In other first-round region games, Glynn Academy defeated Evans 4-2 and Lakeside topped Statesboro 5-0. Glynn will play Lakeside in the second semifinals with the semifinal winners playing for the region championship on April 18. The semifinal loser will also play for the region’s No. 3 and No. 4 seeds at state.
The Rebels, a No. 3 seed from the North subregion, won their first-round contest against the Mustangs, a No. 2 seed from the South, by answering an early 1-0 deficit with a goal by Isabelle Rahn at 23:47 of the first half and getting the game-winner from Riley Lapollo at 12:06 of the first half.
ECHS won the statistical battle against SEHS in its first meeting on March 14 but lost the 0-0, 4-3 shootout.
It was the second time the Rebels lost a shootout during a midseason five-game losing streak. The team was also playing without one of its top players, Brooks Burnsed, who suffered a non-soccer related injury and was lost for the season.
But a young team with just four seniors showed its resiliency by avenging a loss to Evans and defeating Savannah Christian 10-0 during the final four regular-season games.
The Rebels also decreased their margins of defeat in losses to Lakeside (5-0 the first meeting and 4-0 the second) and Greenbrier (9-0 the first meeting and 6-0 the second).
“We went into this game thinking’ ‘Win or (the season) is done,’” McClenahan said. “Winning was big and the fact it’s a rivalry game, that makes it better.”
ECHS out-played the Mustangs at the start and finished the first half with a 7-2 advantage in shots. But SEHS scored first when Addison Tulowitski slipped a shot past goalie Riley Bracken at 25:10.
Rahn quickly knotted the game and Lapollo finished the scoring.
Bracken made the lead stand up with four second-half saves.
South goalie Valencia Collins had nine saves.
“We just weren’t on today,” Mustangs coach Kate Blaske said. “We scored the early goal and made some nice short passes to control the ball at times but we couldn’t get a rhythm going. It’s very disappointing.”
South (7-7) had five losses by one goal, including two to subregion champ Glynn Academy.
The Mustangs will conclude its season this week with non-region home games against Savannah Arts on April 8 and Calvary Day on April 10.
