Tift soccer teams open regular season

Published 1:00 pm Tuesday, January 25, 2022

TIFTON — The 2021 Region 1-7A champions were back on the field last week for a scrimmage match and head coach Bobby Earls believes his Tift County Blue Devils will be in contention again this year. At the same time, Lady Devils head coach Sherri Constable is looking forward to not just her first season in charge, but watching Tift keep progressing.

The regular season was to have started Tuesday at Lee County, a game that was originally set for April, but moved, said Earls, because the season start was bumped up two weeks. Tift will play its first regular season home matches Feb. 1 against Crisp County, then play five of its next six on the road.

Region begins Feb. 25 at home against Colquitt County. Tift’s 1-7A opponents are Colquitt, Lowndes and Camden County. Lee is serving is a bit of a region preview for next year, when Tift leaves 1-7A for 1-6A. The Trojans are the only future conference opponent on the Devils’ slate in 2022.

Tift split its scrimmages, but the scores weren’t the biggest thing to either coach.

“I told the boys, I just need to see where you are,” said Earls of how he approached Lee. “We looked a little bit on our heels the first 10 minutes, and I think we fixed that.” Manny Marin and Alex Cardoso each netted two goals, with Daniel Gomez adding the other.

Marin was the Devils’ second leading scorer in 2021, not a bad position to be in at all, considering that Cris Banda set the team record for goals scored in a single season. Marin had 15 goals and his 11 assists were tops on the club. Cardoso was close behind with 13 goals.

“He’s exciting to watch,” said Earls of Marin. “You never know what he’s going to do with the ball.” Marin is also impressing with his mentality. A couple of Blue Devils saw a reduction in minutes at the scrimmage because of academics. Marin had a chat with them about accountability.

Earls isn’t returning all of his lineup from last year’s 15-2, but he does return a lot of experience. “My back four defenders had substantial playing time last year,” he said. Those include Eli Harden, RaJae Mickins, Beto Aguirre and Jayden “Bronx” Arzola.

“(Jonathan) Salazar and Kevyn (Lopez) are looking great in midfield,” he said. Both played extensively last season. Marin’s speed and versatility allow him to play all over the field. “We’re going to be in good shape,” Earls said.

A handful of players had their first varsity minutes against Lee County. Earls said it would be process for them to adjust to the speed of the game at this level.

Mickins and Salazar are co-captains. Earls has nothing but praise for Mickins’ work.

Mike Taylor is in his first year as a full-time starter in goal, but earned three wins in 2021 and played an average of 14 minutes per game. He’s considered one of the hardest workers in the entire athletic program, to the point that coaches have donned T-shirts with ‘Be Like Mike Taylor.’

“He’s just a great kid,” said Earls. “I’m excited for what the future holds for Mike.” Earls has two young keepers competing for playing time as well.

Constable describes her team’s youth as, “We are and we aren’t.”

“We don’t have a whole lot of seniors — there’s only four on varsity,” she explained. “We have quite a few juniors, but they’ve played varsity. It’s not a whole lot of new faces.”

Two years after COVID-19 wiped out most of Tift’s season, Constable said they are still feeling the effects. The cancelations not only meant that the varsity campaigns ended, but the junior varsity as well. Many of current Lady Devils were on that JV squad, meaning that their minutes were extremely limited. They went from there to playing a ton of minutes on varsity as sophomores, having to do more development against opponents than usual.

“We had to jump immediately into varsity and learn on the fly,” she said.

The Lady Devils finished 2-4 in the region, both of the wins against Colquitt County.

Laura Kate Wright scored Tift’s lone goal in the scrimmage. Caroline Dotson and Midori Moffett are getting their first varsity minutes as strikers. Able to play all over are Gigi Elizalde, Kim Sanchez, Kiondria Haggins and Abby Goddard, all of whom have significant playing time under their belts.

Freshman Diana Reducindo has taken over at goalkeeper. She made several athletic plays against Lee and has a real passion for the game. “She’s got a lot of natural talent,” said Constable.

The Lady Devils have size and agility on the back line. Kaylen Andrews has stepped into a leadership role for that group. Constable think they are aware of their abilities and how to use them. “They play within themselves,” she said.