GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Gainesville had three goals coming into Friday’s monster showdown with No. 1 Lanier at City Park Stadium.
They needed a win to clinch a playoff spot. They also needed to win by more than two goals. Do both of those, and they would control the road to a Region 8-6A title.
Two out of three ain’t bad, as Meatloaf said.
The sixth-ranked Red Elephants handed the Longhorns their first loss of the season, 2-0, as the defense frustrated the Lanier offense the entire match.
The win clinched no worse than second in the region and a home playoff game for the Red Elephants (12-2-1, 8-1 Region 8-6A). But the win was the identical score of their 2-0 loss to Lanier last month meaning they are still trailing the Longhorns in the goal-differential tiebreaker.
Pedro Jose Galindo scored a first half goal to give Gainesville the early momentum. Ozmar Marceleno scored midway through the second half for the back-breaker.
Before, in-between, and after the goals, the Gainesville defense did its best Stonewall Jackson impersonation blocking more than a dozen shots in front of keeper Wilberth Orellana Torres, who had 12 saves, including two from point-blank range in the second half.
“The defense was outstanding and (Wilberth) made two great saves,” Gainesville coach Elie Viviant said. “When we’re healthy we feel we can play with anyone. We were healthy for this one.”
Now, Viviant says they just need Lanier (13-1-1, 9-1 Region 8-6A) to win by less than Red Elephants the rest of the way.
“We are tied since we split the series. We need to win the rest of our games by three and hope they lose one or win the games by less than we do.”
Lanier got the opening kickoff and quickly forced a corner in the first minute. But Gainesville had the better opportunities in the first half.
The Red Elephants outshot the Longhorns 6-4 in the opening 40 minutes behind a quick counter-attack strategy.
In the 8th minute the Red Elephants hit the post after a beautiful crossing pass. Gabriel Ixcoy Calel had a blast from inside 5-yards that Lanier keeper Ben Haynes made a tremendous diving save to keep it scoreless.
Over a five minute stretch the teams traded runs and shots until Gainesville finally broke through. Pedro Jose Galindo blasted a shot from point-blank range on a rebound during a wild flurry in front of the Lanier goal with 14:26 left in the half for a 1-0 lead.
Lanier missed on a bicycle kick three minutes later and with just 2 minutes remaining Alex Cobzaru gathered in a long pass into the box but his attempt trickled just wide left.
With the lead, Gainesville played more defensive as the Longhorns dominated the possession. They had three early shots that sailed high but in the 58th minute Cobzaru ended up with the ball inside 5 yards. But Torres was able to make a tremendous kick save to preserve the lead.
Four minutes later Lanier’s Jackson Hughes had another shot for the Longhorns deep in the box, but once again Torres was able to make a diving save. Torre’s ensuing goal kick sparked a quick-strike run by the Red Elephants, with Marceleno beating Ben Haynes for a 2-0 advantage with 16:37 left..
From there, the defense allowed just three Lanier shots to preserve just their second shutout victory of the season.
