Soccer: Chestatee girls ousted in first round

GAINESVILLE -- Carrollton's game plan was simple: stop Chestatee's Alexis Rebollar.

The Lady Trojans hounded and frustrated the Lady War Eagles' all-time leading scorer on defense and used an early goal to grab the momentum en route to a 5-0 win in the first round of the Class AAAA girls state soccer playoffs Tuesday at War Eagle Stadium.

Meanwhile, the Chestatee defense was not able to contain Carrollton forward Isabel Rothschadl, who recorded a hat trick for the Lady Trojans.

The win for Carrollton (13-6) moves the No. 3 seed from Region 5-AAAA into the second round.

Chestatee (12-5-2) was looking for its second Sweet 16 appearance in the last three seasons. But the Lady War Eagles were never able to muster much offense against the third-ranked Lady Trojans.

"We knew they would be good coming in," Chestatee coach Mark Dunn said. "The game plan for other teams is always to stop No. 7 (Rebollar) and they were able to do that. We had some chances but we just couldn't connect."

Carrollton dominated the opening with three shots on goal in the first five minutes using passes down the wings to create opportunities. The Lady Trojans eventually broke through less than six minutes into the game.

Sarah Bryan made a run down the right side and then threaded a nice pass through the Chestatee defense that Rothschadl was able to gather and then drill a shot past Chestatee keeper Sheila Hernandez for a 1-0 lead.

"It's never good to fall down early, especially to a team that good," Dunn said. "We were on our heels after that."

Just a minute later Carrollton' Falen Kizunga was able to steer a shot past Hernandez. But the Lady Trojans were called for a late offsides to negate the goal.

Chestatee had several scoring chances late in the half. Samantha Addington lofted a shot toward the goal on a corner cross that Carrollton keeper Karlie Hightower was able to corral. Sadie Foote would try to connect with Rebollar 10 minutes later lofting a ball into the box but Hightower beat Rebollar to the ball to stop the threat.

"They were marking me real well the entire game," Rebollar said. "It was a little frustrating but that's part of the game. We just kept trying to get something going. We never could."

Two minutes later Carrollton would strike again when Kizunga scored with 12:53 left on a pass from Emily Adams. The Lady Trojans would have another goal negated just over a minute later on another offsides call and the half would end with Carrollton holding a 2-0 lead.

The Lady War Eagles offense looked much more in sync to start the second half with several runs in the opening minutes. Chestatee's best scoring chances in the second half came within two minutes of each other with 30 minutes left.

Foote gathered a loose ball and blasted a shot from 10-yards out but Hightower made a diving one-handed save to keep the Lady War Eagles off the board. Two minutes later Rebollar would make a nice run down the left side and centered a pass to Hope Baxter. But Baxter could not get a clean shot off before Hightower was able to knock the ball out of the box.

Rothschadl would put the game away 15 minutes later with a pair of goals less than two minutes apart late in the second half for a 4-0 lead. Adams added the final goal with just five seconds left in the game with a shot that caromed off the crossbar.

"Alexis had a good chance and Hope had a chance but their keeper made a couple of good stops. If we can get one or even two it's a different game," Dunn said.