Fever pitch: Devils score late to advance to elite eight

Published 11:00 pm Tuesday, April 19, 2022

TIFTON – Tift County’s Blue Devils shocked Alpharetta, 2-1, Tuesday night to make the elite eight in the Class 7A state soccer playoffs.

Shocked may be an understatement. Even the coaching staff was in a state of semi-disbelief after the final seconds rolled off the clock.

Head coach Bobby Earls was the first to admit that though the Blue Devils were the No. 1 seed on the bracket, the final result was an upset.

“Heart and character” pushed Tift through against an Alpharetta team Earls easily conceded had more talent.

“I’m just shocked,” said Earls.

Tift will aim for the final four at home next week against Campbell, a 4-1 winner over West Forsyth.

The Devils have been without their leading scorer for weeks and have had to rebuild the offense from the ground up. Tuesday, they were vastly outshot by Alpharetta, to the point that they attempted as many as the Raiders did during a 10-second flurry around the goal in the 1st half.

Tift shot three times on goal at the most. Two went in, including an improbable effort by Anthony Palomares with 1:17 remaining in the half that broke a 1-1 tie.

Earls asked Palomares after the game how he made the goal, the second huge one for him in as many weeks. Palomares admitted he wasn’t sure.

“You find a way to score,” Earls grinned. “That’s all I can ask of you.”

Palomares’ goal joined a 1st half rebound by Gabe Rodriguez. In between was a score by Alpharetta’s Jason Wong-Lopez.

The Wong-Lopez goal came 36 minutes into the 2nd half. Tift had been holding off the Raiders’ offensive attack all game.

A header here, a clear there, a few well-timed tackles and a lot of goalkeeper Mike Taylor were how they were keeping afloat.

In the minutes before Alpharetta tied, the Devils had run off a few more seconds of precious time when Rodriguez made a steal and went on a brief run. But none of the runs lasted long and they were never able to sustain an attack.

Alpharetta soon had the ball again. Taylor soon had to make a diving save and the Raiders had another corner kick. This was the only fruitful try for the visitors, a ball that bounced out to the middle of the box long enough for Wong-Lopez to set up and fire.

The lead Tift had held for 51 minutes was gone, but instead of the momentum switching over to Alpharetta, somehow as Earls repeated afterwards, the Devils dug a little deeper and found a little more.

First, however, they had to go through near disaster. Rushing out to beat a forward to the ball, Taylor collided with a Raider. Both went down and had to be helped off the field. Thirty-nine seconds later, when Tift had the next throw-in Taylor reentered.

“He’s tough as nails,” Earls said. “He wasn’t going to let us down.”

Earls thought back to a year earlier, when Taylor showed up for tryouts on a whim. After a year as backup keeper, he’s become one of their top players.

“He was an athlete who played keeper. Now he’s become an athletic keeper.”

Kevyn Lopez passed ahead with four minutes left, but Palomares was unable to beat the keeper to the ball.

The Devils went another run with two minutes showing, Palomares leading the way. He passed to Daniel Gomez, who had the ball kicked out against him. So did Lopez on a throw-in.

The next throw-in was deep and headed ahead by Alex Cardoso. For the second straight week, Palomares slipped behind the defense and beat the keeper to the loose ball and had enough on the shot to get into the net.

Tift cleared once in the final minute, and disrupted a pass. The Raiders tried a deep shot, but Taylor easily scooped it up with 23 seconds left.

Alpharetta interfered with Taylor’s goal kick, which set the Devils up with a goal kick. Rodriguez made a run as time expired, sending a stream of Tift players onto the field.

The Raiders controlled the ball from the start. Taylor had to be here, there and everywhere to fend off attempts, with teammates occasionally having to mind the net themselves during rebounds.

Jose Gonzalez played defensive positions he’d never played before. Isai Mendez gave Tift quality minutes at the end of the 1st half and in the 2nd. Mendez was the only sub the Devils used over the first 40 minutes.

Despite having little offense to call their own against an aggressive Alpharetta, it was the Devils who struck first.

Beto Aguirre served a free kick, which bounced off the keeper’s hands. Rodriguez was on the spot and softly arched the rebound over the defense’s heads. Fifteen minutes into the opening half, Tift led 1-0.

Later in the half, Jayden Arzola and Aguirre had big tackles and clears to stop Alpharetta. Jonathan Salazar knocked away a corner kick with 2:30 remaining.

“Bronx (Arzola) played great. Mike played great.” He also had plenty of praise for RaJae Mickins.

In the final 80 seconds of the opening half Arzola twice made steals and cleared the ball away.

“We just dug deep,” Earls said. “I can’t be more proud and more happy for them. Hard work and character, that’s all we did.”

The elite eight appearance is Tift’s first since 2011.