It's a light night on the pitch for northeast Georgia area soccer teams on Thursday. But for 8-4A it will be the most important of the season, at least on the boys side.
Class 4A No. 5 East Hall and No. 4 Flowery Branch will hold a winner-take-all match at Valhalla for the region title. The No. 2 seed, however, could come down to tiebreakers.
East Hall (10-2-1, 4-1 Region 8-4A) is coming off a 3-2 loss to North Oconee that snapped a seven-match win streak. Branch (12-1-1, 4-1 Region 8-4A) is coming off a 4-3 win over Jefferson.
A Flowery Branch win would give the Falcons the championship and East Hall would be the No. 2 seed. But a East Hall victory would put the Falcons, Jefferson, and either Chestatee or North Oconee in a three-way tie for third.
Meanwhile, at Lynn Cottrell Complex, the surging seventh-ranked Chestatee boys will take on North Oconee in a do-or-die match for the playoffs. The loser is out.
Chestatee (8-5, 3-2 Region 8-4A) has won two straight, both in the region. North Oconee (5-4-1, 3-2 Region 8-4A) is coming off its big win over the Vikings on Tuesday.
A Chestatee win and a Branch loss to East Hall would put the War Eagles, Falcons, and Dragons into a tiebreaker mode. A Chestatee win and East Hall loss would have the Falcons No. 1, East Hall as the No. 2 seed, Jefferson third and Chestatee fourth.
(Rankings are taken from the March 20 eurosportscoreboard.com rankings.)
AREA SOCCER SCHEDULE FOR Thursday, April 1
(Games listed by visiting team in alphabetical order)
(Area teams highlighted in bold)
(Games begin at 5:30 p.m. with girls match, unless otherwise noted)
Dawson County at Buford
Flowery Branch at East Hall*
Lakeview Academy at Mt. Pisgah, 5 p.m.
Loganville at Jackson County*
North Oconee at Chestatee*
Union County at Riverside Military (boys only), 5 p.m.*
(* -- denotes region contest)
