Thursday and Friday at Holy Innocents' was a double shot of soccer successes, as our girls wasted no time in putting away Heritage-Ringgold 8-0 while the boys took care of business on the road in knocking off #5-ranked SE Whitfield 2-1.
 
With the victories, the girls will take on rival Lovett this Thursday on the road; the boys will also travel – they will face East Forsyth Friday as postseason rolls on.
 
Starting with the girls' win, it took HIES approximately seven seconds to get on the board, then another two-and-a-half minutes before scoring again. Colette Harwell, who scored twice on the day, put in a rebound deflection off the keeper before the spectators had found their seats before Lauren Malsom scored the first of her two goals in the three minute mark.
 
From there, the momentum was halted only for the halftime break; the final 40 minutes more goals came from Avery Bennett, Ava McMasters, Lilly Russell, and Alexa Henningsen. 
 
Looking ahead, HI's girls look to extend its season against a Lovett team they played just over a week ago.
 
While the girls' team has deservingly gotten big soccer news the last decade or so, the boys have quietly developed into a very strong team as well. After a solid postseason performance last year where it took the top team in the nation to put Tyler Santee's team down, this time around HI showed its peaking at the right time in Friday's win.
 
As for the specifics, Matthew Taylor scored the first goal of the game on a penalty kick – the 1-0 score held until halftime. Bradlee Williams knocked in the second in the final 40 minutes off of great pass from Zac Omorode-Ufuoma. 
 
While the offense remained ignited, keeper Preston Cate – back from an injury – came up huge for the umpteenth time in his soccer career by saving a SE penalty kick later on.
 
Looking at some of the other stars, Tucker Gleeson and Taylor were "brick walls defensively" according to Coach Santee (Father Santee!), while Miller King and Ryan Strother were "engines at midfield." 
 
"It was a phenomenal game but the job is not done," Santee proclaimed afterwards.
 
Congrats to both teams for yet more postseason runs – may the engines roll on.
 
Go Bears.