DAWSONVILLE — The Class 3A seventh-ranked Jefferson girls soccer team found the gold at the end of the rainbow Wednesday night at Tiger Stadium.
After an hour-long lightning delay, a rainbow draped itself across the east side of the stadium, providing not only a picturesque moment but a little added luck for the Lady Dragons.
Jefferson (14-5-1, Region 8-3A No. 2 seed) booted two goals in a persistent first half to upset No. 2-ranked Dawson County (13-2-1, Region 7-3A No. 1 seed) in the second round of the Class 3A playoffs.
"We didn't come out the way we wanted to come out," Jefferson coach Molly McCarty said. "We knew they were going to be fast and we knew everything was going to be big and over the top. We had to take care of their key players up top — that was our big thing all week. If we take that out, then we're taking everything else out and that's really kind of what we did."
Dawson County controlled the tempo early in the top-10 bout, but one shot sailed over the goal and Jefferson goalkeeper Margo Perry saved a Dawson corner kick.
"We had to kind of feel our way in," McCarty said. "I think the first eight minutes was Dawson, Dawson, Dawson and then the tables kind of turned. I couldn't have asked enough out of our defense tonight. Our outside mids, because we knew if we could stretch them, we would have more advantage."
The Lady Dragons began their attack with 23 minutes left in the first half when Abbey Eison's shot deflected off a Dawson player into the goal for the first score of the game with 22:39 left.
"I hate seeing own goals in soccer because I've had that happen before — it's just not a good feeling," McCarty said. "But, that gets mentally into the other team. So, when that happened, we just had a little boost. Then we persisted for the second one."
Jefferson pressed on taking four shots at Dawson goalkeeper Fallen Lacy, finally breaking through the Tiger defense with 1:54 remaining in the half. Eison scored off a blast across the box just beyond the outstretched hands of Lacy into the left side of the net.
The Lady Dragons held defensively to lead at the half, 2-0.
"We knew going into the second half that 2-0 is one of the scariest scores in soccer, so we had to play very defensively," McCarty said. "It wasn't so much as we've gotta score as now that we have to keep the score what it is."
Dawson had opportunities in the second half, opening with a shot from Rachel Rajczak, but Perry knocked it away. After that, the Lady Tigers had five missed opportunities to close the gap.
"They played really really hard," Dawson coach Chess Hamby said about Jefferson. Truly, they just outworked us tonight and that's a testament to their coaching staff and their kids. I told their assistant after the game, I feel like they've improved drastically throughout the season and that's just hard work. If we had played early, I think we would have beat them. I think they've just improved more throughout the season than we have."
Jefferson will travel to No. 3-ranked Pike County on May 7 in the quarterfinals. Time to be announced.
"We've been very careful about taking it only one game at a time and not looking too far into the future," McCarty said. "Of course, our goal has been to go as far as we can. I've kind of gotten some good scouting off of them (Pike). If we play the way we played tonight and persist and be relentless, I like our chances."
