Dalton needed something big to happen to garner its eighth GHSA boys’ soccer state championship Friday night against Midtown.
Locked in a scoreless battle at Duluth High School after 53 minutes of play in the Class AAAA title match, the top-ranked Catamounts relied on their two top playmakers to make something happen, and it worked for a 1-0 win.
Dalton senior Joe Gonzalez, last year’s Times Free Press Best of Preps boys’ soccer player of the year, bent a corner kick perfectly in front of the Midtown goal, where senior forward Rigo Torres headed the ball in with 26 minutes to play. The Catamounts, who finished the season 21-1-1, added this title to those from 2003, 2013-15, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
“We just needed one, and we got one,” said coach Matt Cheaves, who has been the helm for all of Dalton’s titles. “We had a corner kick, and we really had been pushing on that end to get something going. Joe put it in a great place where Rigo just had to put a touch on it.”
The matchup was a repeat of Dalton’s seventh championship, also held at Duluth, where the Knights (16-7) successfully used their superior size to limit Dalton’s scoring opportunities. That 2-0 win three years ago went to extra time, where the Catamounts were able to finally use their superior speed and ball-handling skills to prevail.
(READ MORE: Dalton won boys’ soccer championships while uniting an area)
From the start, Midtown put most of its focus on the defensive end and often frustrated the Cats with physicality in a 0-0 first half with very few scoring opportunities for either squad.
“We didn’t change anything at halftime,” Cheaves said. “We just talked about settling down and playing our game and playing our ball. If we could calm down and play our game, we knew we could control the flow and get some chances.”
Dalton quickly put more pressure on the Knights in the first few minutes of the second half, and even though it didn’t result in a goal, the Cats had three decent looks in the first 12 minutes of the second half to noticeably shake their opponents.
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Dalton finally broke through two minutes after Midtown had its best scoring chance on Thomas Carter’s strong shot that was saved by senior keeper Josue Resendiz.
Gonzalez’s corner kick from the left side was so on point that the Midtown keeper moved to make the save just as Torres leapt and got just enough off the right side of his head to sneak the ball in.
Down a goal, the Knights switched their strategy to become more aggressive on offense, and it resulted in two good looks in the next six minutes, including Max Johnson’s shot that was just high as the Cats got caught out of position with 20 minutes remaining.
From there, though, Dalton clamped down to keep Midtown from getting any shots on goal to secure the championship.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.