Teams of the Week visits Georgia finals

by Will Parchman

May 20, 2014

It was state tournament time for Georgia last weekend, which meant a new bevy of title-winners were crowned in one of the South’s most impressive soccer hotbeds. With that in mind, here’s a look at this week’s Georgia-flavored TopDrawerSoccer.com High School Teams of the Week.

Boys: Brookwood High School (Snellville, Georgia)

High school soccer reached its thrilling crescendo last week with a spate of state title games, which included the state’s AAAAAA matchup between Brookwood and Mill Creek. In the end, Brookwood emerged 2-1 winners to capture a state title. While McIntosh tends to steal most of the state’s boys soccer headlines with its incredible amount of talent year-in and year-out, Brookwood has been similarly dominant this season in the state’s largest classification. It entered last weekend’s title game with a 21-1 record against two-loss Mill Creek, and what happened next provided enough fireworks to last us well into the offseason.

The game went without a goal until, with eight minutes left in regulation, Mill Creek struck on a header from Jack Giles for a 1-0 lead. Shortly thereafter, the Hawks earned a penalty kick with the chance to double the lead and put it out of reach. That returned to bite Mill Creek. Less than a minute later, Jordan Locke headed in a free kick to send the teams into overtime. Finally, Alfredo Rivera slashed through the defense and scored a lovely goal in the first overtime to send the Broncos to their second ever outright state title and first since 2004. It was a fitting end to a season that will go down in Brookwood lore as one of the best in program history.

Girls: Harrison High School (Kennesaw, Georgia)

Undefeated seasons are rare, but they’re even more difficult as the classification ratchets up and the competition becomes increasingly deeper. That’s what Harrison faced this year in Class AAAAAA, and they had just one final hurdle to clear last week in Grayson, a fellow unbeaten also going for a title-winning season without dropping a game. The result? Harrison won the war, putting two goals within 11 minutes of each other to escape with a 2-1 win over state title game newcomer Grayson.

In spite of inexperience, Grayson struck first with less than eight minutes to go in the first half on a rebound goal from Jennifer Westendorf. But Harrison clawed back with goals from Audrey Tanner and Treva Aycock in the second half to streak to the title and a perfect 22-0-0 record. Grayson, for its part, finished 21-1-1, though the presence of Westendorf over the next two seasons would seem to put them in good stead to return to this stage sooner rather than later.

Honorable mention

Boys: Danville-New London High School (New London, Iowa); McIntosh High School (Peachtree City, Georgia)

Girls: Saint Francis Catholic High School (Sacramento, California); West Johnston High School (Benson, North Carolina)