'Resiliency' of Pace Academy helps hold off Starr's Mill 4-3
In a non region matchup on the pitch Friday, the Pace Academy Knights girls soccer team hosted the Starr's Mill Panthers in what could eventually be a Georgia High School Association state championship tournament showdown in the postseason.
Both currently leaders and unbeaten in their respective region standings, the Knights, winners of four of their last five, looked to slow down a Panthers team entering Friday's match winners of five in a row and jumped out to a 3-0 first half lead on goals courtesy of Harper Aunchincloss, Britton McGurn and Maya Reiss.
However while it appeared Pace would potentially run away with the match, Starr's Mill would find themselves trailing 3-2 by halftime as Kendra Ivaska and Alexis King would each score a goal to help the Panthers close the gap on the Knights. As the second half got underway, Reiss would connect on her second goal of the match to push the Knights' lead back up to two goals as they led 4-2, eventually picking up the 4-3 win.
"Starr's Mill is always a strong program so we love having them on our schedule even if they're non-region," Pace Academy head coach, Declan Traquair, said of facing the Panthers, crediting them for helping prepare for postseason play due to how competitive they are.
"We go 3-0 up and then they show their quality and come right back into the game, but really proud of how our girls showed some resilience and fought back and then went and got that winner and then defended really, really well so really proud of the girls tonight," Traquair said following Friday's win.
When the Knights return to the pitch next week, they'll head into a stretch of three straight region matches, including showdowns with the Midtown Knights, who are also unbeaten in region play, and the Maynard Jackson Jaguars, who have just one region loss on the season.
"I think defensively we've been solid all season, but we've played against quality teams so we know we're going to concede chances, now we've got two really big region games that are really going to determine playoffs so really focused on that," Traquair said of the Knights preparing for the final stretch of the regular season.
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