DALTON, Ga. — The Southeast Whitfield soccer seniors led. The rest of the team quickly followed.
The Georgia AAAA fifth-ranked Raiders overcame a slow start with a strong finish Wednesday in a 4-0 victory over Upson-Lee. The Raiders will face Whitewater, an 8-0 winner over Eastside, in a state quarterfinal Saturday.
Senior Miguel Hernandez had a goal and assist in Southeast’s win.
“It’s the playoffs, so it’s time to step up,” Hernandez said. “It wasn’t just the seniors, though: Everybody has to, and I hope we play like this next round. As a senior, you want to tell the underclassmen what to do, but we’ve been doing better by showing them.”
Hernandez nailed a shot from 30 feet out that first put the Raiders on the board in the 28th minute. It was exactly what the team needed in that moment.
“I think it set the tempo for the whole game,” he said. “We came out slow, but it allowed us to play better and looser.
“It’s a great feeling to get a goal in the state tournament.”
The team took that 1-0 lead into the halftime break, but early in the second half Hernandez was involved again. He found some space on the right side for a run that led to a cross that was eventually finished by fellow senior Ramiro Guerrero.
Sophomore Diego Landeros added a goal in the 60th minute on a rebound, and senior Victor Garcia finished the scoring in the 69th minute.
“Upson-Lee played very direct, and they were one-dimensional in terms of their offense, so we had to calm down and do our thing,” Southeast coach Kevin Kettenring said of his team’s slow start.
The Knights (16-5-1) played a lot of their attack to forward Dylan Marshall, whose best attempt came in the 25th minute on a shot from the right side that went under the hands of Southeast goalkeeper Cruz Ruiz but rolled just wide of the net.
As the highest seed left in their side of the bracket, the Raiders could host their next two playoff matches.
“We’re thrilled to be at home,” Kettenring said. “When we made our run in 2013 (to the championship match), we were away every game and wore our red jerseys the entire trip.
“We’re not thinking that far ahead yet; we’re going to hinge on the small things, fine-tune and go from there.”
* Dalton 6, Columbus 0: The Catamouts (17-0) blew the Class AAAAA game open with five second-half goals in advancing to Saturday’s quarterfinals.
Kilo Rodriguez, Jose Espino, Jesus Huitanda, Kobe Perez, Justen Macias and Gibby Perez had goals for the nation’s top-ranked team according to Maxpreps, which will host Lithia Springs on Saturday.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.