ATLANTA – The last time Sequoyah’s Kristy King had this much leather being thrown at her, it was on the softball field.

However, on Wednesday, the Lady Chiefs’ goalkeeper did not have her catcher equipment, as her and seven teammates’ high school soccer careers came to an end at Marist. The top-ranked Lady War Eagles peppered King with 40 shots on goal in a 6-1 victory in the second round of the Class AAAA girls state soccer playoffs.

The 11th-ranked Lady Chiefs, who were eliminated from the playoffs for a second year in a row, ended their season with a 13-4 record. They also say good-bye to the winningest senior class in school history. The Class of ’08 won back-to-back region championship and never lost to a county opponent.

This senior class also has Emily Dover, the leading goal scorer in school history, who scored the final goal of the season for the Lady Chiefs.

Trailing Marist after it scored two goals in the span of 23 seconds, Dover took advantage of a hesitant Lady Eagle goalkeeper to score a goal with 31:53 left in the first half. The goal was set up by the play of Sequoyah midfielder Katherine Amatulli.

Following a goal by Marist’s Mary Coffed, who had two goals and a pair of assists, Amatulli got the opening pass and found space on the left wing. She got deep into the offensive zone and set up a crossing pass to a charging Dover.

(Left: Emily Dover, the program’s all-time leading scorer, had a goal in Sequoyah’s 6-1 loss to Marist. Todd Callahan Ledger-news) Emily ends her high school career with 90 goals.

Marist goalkeeper Ashley Jameson, who made four saves and faced just nine shots on goal, let the ball bounce before coming out to capture the ball. It allowed Dover to use her speed to get to the ball and boot it past Jameson.

The goal put Sequoyah back in the contest, but it was short-lived, as the Lady War Eagles, who have allowed multiple goals to the opposition only twice in the past two years, used their speed for another goal at the 22:34 mark of the first half. Katie Athaide made it 3-1 with a goal on Marist’s 12th shot on goal of the game.

“Without a doubt that’s a No. 1 team,” Sequoyah head coach Bill Dillon said of Marist. “They were strong everywhere. Then they brought people off the bench who were just as strong.”

Dillon admitted his girls were not fooled by Marist’s strategy, but the speed at which the Lady Eagles were executing caused the Lady Chiefs to fall back on their heels. Sequoyah’s collapsing down in its defensive end allowed the Marist midfielders to have a great deal of open space to work.

The open space allowed several scoring chances for Marist, which controlled the tempo and played the majority of the game in its offensive zone.

“They weren’t running anything we haven’t seen before, but they were running it faster,” Dillon said. “My defenders, God bless them, I love them all, but we just don’t have the speed in back to man up with what [Marist] was throwing at us.”

Dillon added he could have brought his forwards back and packed the defensive zone but the team still would have lost.

Trailing 3-1 midway through the first half, Sequoyah began to adjust to the speed of Marist. The Lady Chiefs also generated some scoring chances in the final 10 minutes but were unable to put anything on the board.

Dover, who was shut down for most of the game by Kayleen Duffy, who has signed with Clemson, got the ball in front of the Marist goal with 10:13 left in the half but the shot missed the goal.

In the 31st minute, Sequoyah was threatening again when midfielder Brittany Fox was taken down from 30 yards away from the goal, setting up a free kick. Senior Alaina Carluccio took the free kick but Jameson made the initial stop. The junior keeper dropped the ball but managed to gobble up the bounce for one of her three saves in the half.

Another save came off a shot from Fox.

A mistake in the offensive zone by Marist led to another scoring chance by Sequoyah in the waning moments of the half.

Katelyn Rikel battled two defenders to get control of the ball and boot it toward the goal. The ball was deflected over the baseline by Marist and gave the Lady Chiefs a corner kick as the seconds ticked away. Carluccio took the corner kick and booted the ball toward the goal. Jameson got a hand on the ball to make a save and the buzzer sounded to save the Lady War Eagles.

The score stayed that way until the midpoint of the second half when Marist broke the game open against a heavy-legged Sequoyah team.

Coffed added a goal off an assist from Meghan Duffy in the 56th minutes for a 4-1 lead, and added goals in the 63rd and 66th minute to blow the game open. Shannon Fitzpatrick scored unassisted with 16:25 left in the game, and a little more than three minutes later, Laura Eddy capped the scoring on a corner kick.

Coffed took the corner kick and made a cross to Eddy, who was on the far post. The Marist junior headed the ball past King for a 6-1 lead.

With little gas in the tank, the Lady Chiefs were unable to generate any offense against the Lady Eagles. Their first shot on goal came in the 72nd minute and went wide of the goal. The other shot on goal was off a free kick from 40 yards away.

Kelsey Carl, who was credited with several blocks of Marist shots on the other side of the pitch, took the free kick that was saved by Jameson.

“We ran with them for the middle 40, the last 20 of the first half and the first 20 of the second half,” Dillon said. “That last 20, we just ran out of gas. But if you are going to lose to a team, that is the team you want to lose to because that team is unreal.”

After witnessing Marist play and reading all the scouting reports, Dillon believes the Class AAAA soccer state championship has already been decided.

“This team is loaded, and I haven’t seen a team as strong as that Marist team,” Dillon said. “Even when we were playing in 5-A, [Marist] that team is better than any 5-A teams I have ever played.”

Having gone to the round of 16 two years in a row, the Lady Chiefs could be facing a rebuilding year next season.
They are losing all but one of their starting defenders, and Dover leaves a big hole at one of the forward spots.

The loss marked the final game played by Carluccio, Dover, Carl, King, Amatulli, Kailey Barwick, Cassandra Pedroni, and starting defender Diane Prescott.