Emma Choate gets her foot behind the ball seconds before she scored her second goal for Tift County Friday. Maggie Clark provided the other in a 3-1 victory.

TIFTON — If Friday night’s scrimmages are indication of the season ahead, Tift County soccer fans should anticipate a good year from both squads.

The Lady Devils defeated Lee County, 3-1, and the Blue Devils won, 7-0, after scoring four goals in the first half.

Emma Choate put Tift on the board 10 minutes into the girls game.

Tift controlled the action, keeping the ball on their end of the field for much of the first half, but outside of Choate’s goal, saw numerous shots saved during the first 20 minutes of action.

Choate scored from deep on the left side of the field midway through the period for a 2-0 advantage.

That would be all the scoring in the first half, despite many close calls.

Lee had a shot off a corner kick bounce off the sidebar and both Choate and Maggie Clark were denied goals in a minute span.

The Lady Trojans cut into Tift’s lead with a goal at 31:14 in the second half.

Lee made a tip save on Clark, but had no answer when Choate was able to pass to her ahead of the visitors’ defense. Clark beat the goalie at 25:42 for a 3-1 score.

Lupe Osorio nearly netted two goals in the final minutes, but Tift needed no further insurance as goalkeeper Brooke Smith was able to fend off Lee.

New head coach Zac Martin was pleased with what he saw in the scrimmage.

“I think we did some good stuff,” he said, “we did some really good things.”

Martin said many of the younger players were settling into their roles. Once they are comfortable, he said he believes Tift “can be a tough team to beat.”

The boys’ scrimmage went even more smoothly.

It took only one minute for Jonathan Escobar to get one-on-one with a defender and get past him and the keeper for a 1-0 advantage.

Even before then, Lee had to make a jumping tip save to stop an Ivan Mendoza shot.

The Trojans had two early chances to get on the scoreboard, but one corner kick was blocked by a Tift defender and another struck the top of the goal.

After that, Lee did not threaten again in the first half.

The Blue Devils, however, were everywhere.

Just barely were the Trojans able to hold off shots by Armando Garcia and Lance Martinez. Garcia’s efforts trickled off the goalie’s hands and he was barely able to deflect Martinez’s attempt on the rebound.

Garcia would not be denied again. He scored at 13:28 from the right side to go ahead 2-0.

Tift put the game away in the last five minutes of the opening half.

Garcia hit a header off a corner kick at 4:22, then Richey Hernandez scored the squad’s fourth goal at 1:17.

Jeraldo Zermeno had two goals in the second half and Escobar picked up his second.

Head coach Bobby Earls credited Hernandez and Garcia with assists during the contest.

Rosendo Ramirez allowed nothing to get past him in goal.

Tift’s teams will be out action until next Friday when they play in the Freedom Cup at Houston County High next Friday.