With Dalton making the trip to Baylor on Tuesday, two decorated Georgia and Tennessee boys’ soccer programs squared off. The Red Raiders held two leads before losing last year’s contest in Dalton, but this time around the nationally ranked Catamounts led early and rode the momentum of a goal near halftime to a 3-1 win.
The interstate friendly won’t have any direct playoff implications on the state title hopefuls, but both coaches said the game will have an impact nonetheless.
“We have one more region match against Allatoona, and in 2015 that’s the team we saw in the final,” Dalton coach Matt Cheaves said. “Baylor’s a team that’s similar to them in size and the style that they play, so we feel like this game can definitely help get us prepared.”
Baylor (5-1-2) will play three more nonregion games before jumping into a stretch of five region matches in its final seven.
“That’s why we put Dalton on the schedule,” Red Raiders coach Curtis Blair said. “We want to play teams that when we make mistakes, they’re going to capitalize on them, because that’s what the teams in our region are going to do.”
Jose Boyzo gave Dalton an early 1-0 lead, but Baylor equalized with Sam Joyner putting away a deflected free kick in the box. Keeper Mats Pokela waved teammates off and elected to take the free kick near midfield and lofted it into the penalty area, where it was deflected down to Joyner.
With the score even, and time ticking toward three minutes to play in the first half, Dalton (13-1) struck back. A foul on the left side of the Catamounts’ attacking third gave Ivan Mora a free kick. He lifted a low line drive, and Tony Saldana raced in front of the defense to head it in for a 2-1 lead at halftime.
“That’s where the keeper has to come out and expand his range a little bit, and he told me that,” Blair said. “Those are things we can work on and get better in practice. But that’s huge momentum going into the half 2-1 compared to 1-1.”
The skilled Dalton squad continued to push its attack, rattling off a barrage of shots from all angles. The Catamounts used long, accurate passes to stretch the defense and create plays in space.
While several shots sailed high and wide, Pokela stood in the way of many others, and early in the second half a rocket from Domingo Granados rattled the crossbar.
“I feel good about how we played,” Cheaves said. “We have a few things to clean up, but overall we played a good game.”
Freshman Ezequiel Hernandez wrapped up the scoring, firing from long range with a strong attack off his left foot to help secure the win.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.