GAINESVILLE -- Aidan Reising juked one defender and then another -- at that point he figured he might as well as shoot.
"I wasn't going to get any closer to goal if I beat another defender," Reising said. "I took my chances."
Turns out it was the right decision.
Reising rolled a 17-yard shot into the left corner of the Cartersville goal with 2:11 left in the first half of Thursday's first round playoff contest in Gainesville. The strike proved the winning margin for the Red Elephants, who dominated play but couldn't find their scoring touch against a determined Cartersville defense.
"We knew they were good defensively, and I think they were well prepared to defend us," Gainesville coach Rick Howard said of the Purple Hurricanes. "I also think not playing for 10 days had an effect. We were a little rusty out there."
Cartersville may have left City Park thinking otherwise.
Despite the lone goal, the Red Elephants (16-1-1) dominated possession, keeping the Purple Hurricanes' defense under constant pressure through the play of midfielders Reising, Douglas Mejia, Ricardo Gomez, Yunis Yanes and Merly Velasquez. Cartersville responded by dropping its entire midfield into defense, leaving its isolated attack to live on long balls, free kicks or the occasional mis-placed pass from the Red Elephants -- a style that yielded just one shot on goal.
Meanwhile, Gainesville forced 12 saves from Cartersville goalkeeper Fernando Serrano and blasted two shots off the Purple Hurricanes' goalpost.
"We got unlucky on a couple of occasions," Howard said. "We also made too many simple mistakes that kept us from capitalizing on some things."
The Red Elephants will look to build on Thursday's win, as they move on to the second round, where they will play host to Howard on Tuesday at City Park.
"We've got to build on the momentum from tonight and keep going," Howard said. "The playoffs are five games (to win a state championship). And we have a lot we can improve on."
With the way things started on Thursday, it appeared Gainesville was set to embark on a scoring blitz.
Yanes headed just wide of goal and then forced an acrobatic save from Serrano on a rising shot that the goalkeeper tipped just over his own crossbar five minutes into the contest. Serrano also denied Roman Arriaga after the Gainesville striker ran on to a low, driven cross from Mejia. And seconds later Reising blasted a shot just wide of the goal.
Yet despite battering the Purple Hurricanes (9-9-1), Serrano and the Cartersville defense, led by Alec Durbano, held on and looked as though they might reach halftime with a scoreless draw to show for their efforts.
Gomez nearly broke through with a long range effort with 13 minutes remaining but saw Serrano pushing his dipping shot onto the goalpost. Gage Turner also looked set to end the deadlock with 10 minutes left in the half, leaping to head home a cross from Reising, but the substitute was ruled offside.
"It was very frustrating, but that kind of thing happens with teams all over, no matter the level," Reising said. "You just have to keep working and hope something will break for you."
Reising made certain of that just before the interval, gathering a loose ball 35 yards from goal and slaloming past two defenders before sliding his shot past a stranded Serrano.
"If you go in at half 0-0 it makes you think, but that goal really set the tone for us," Reising said. "I think it gave us confidence."
Gainesville couldn't quite add to their tally in the second half, despite Mejia slamming a 20-yard off the inside of the Cartersville post just 10 minutes into the restart. Yet the result never seemed in doubt, as the Red Elephants held the Purple Hurricanes without a shot on goal for the entire 40 minute period.
"Hopefully this will push us to step up and play even better next week," Reising said. "We want to take advantage of all the potential we have."
Wednesday
July 2nd, 2025
2:38AM
