Tournament play ends for Harlem girls

Another deep state tournament run came to an end for the Harlem girls soccer team over the weekend. The Lady Bulldogs fell 5-0 to Class AAA No. 1 Blessed Trinity in Roswell, but the loss did little to scar an otherwise strong Harlem season.

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For the second year in a row, the Lady Bulldogs went deeper into the state tournament than any other Columbia County girls soccer team. The weekend loss came in the Class AAA state tournament quarterfinals.

"We played really well as a team this year," Harlem girls soccer coach George Berry said. "We were fighting all the way, and I'm proud of them for that."

Just getting back to the state quarterfinals took a marathon win in the state tournament's second round May 1. Harlem senior Jamie Koet, a foreign exchange student who came to the school in January, scored the only goal in the second overtime period for a win over Perry at home.

"We were all tired, and my leg hurt the whole game," Koet said.

"It was a hard game, and I knew we only had a few minutes left."

Well into the second overtime, Koet slipped behind a Perry defender and teammate Alana Dyson fed her the ball. Koet laced a shot into the upper half of the Perry goal to end the game with a 1-0 win.

"I was making my PK list then," Berry said. "I thought we had a strong first five and was ready for a shootout."

Koet's goal left no need for a shootout as Harlem won and advanced to the state quarterfinals.

The Lady Bulldogs finished its season with a 15-3 overall record and a Region 3N-AAA regular-season championship.