Statesboro

Devils ditch the Dutch, host again Saturday

Dutchtown at Statesboro

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            Erick Quiterio and Matt Campbell set the tone early, Lindsay Martin did the rest.

            Statesboro jumped all over visiting Dutchtown Wednesday night, taking a dominant 6-0 lead and advancing to the quarterfinals of the GHSA Class AAAA state tournament with a 6-3 win at Womack Field.

            The Blue Devils (16-3-1) will host the Loganville-Lakeside of Dekalb winner on Saturday at a time yet-to-be-determined. It’ll be the first time since 2000 SHS has reached the Elite Eight and the Devils have never made it to the Final Four.

            “I don’t even know what to expect next game — I didn’t even know what to expect for this game,” said junior Trent Doty afterward. “But we’ll be ready. We’ll be ready to come out and play.

            Statesboro was certainly ready on Wednesday. It didn’t take long for SHS to start making plays to take the spirit out of the visitors from Hampton.

            The first true scoring opportunity came quickly in the third minute when Darien Copeland played a cross for Adrian Gonzalez in front of SHS keeper Campbell. Campell came off his line and fell to his right to gobble up Gonzalez’ point-blank shot.

            In the 10th minute, Statesboro broke through and never looked back.

            Michael Samiratedu played a long, curving ball from midfield to the top left corner of the DHS box. Quiterio sped past the Bulldog defense, settled and chipped it over Jose Gonzalez’ head for the first score.

            The Devils controlled the pitch from there. Martin rolled one just wide 30 seconds after Quiterio’s score. David Ball clanged a cross of the crossbar in the 11th minute. Martin split two defenders into the box but put another shot wide in the 14th minute. In the 19th minute, Martin’s left-footed free kick had to be pushed wide by a diving Jose Gonzalez for a corner kick.

            “Those first few minutes were critical,” said SHS coach Chad Prosser. “Everyone’s running on adrenaline and you wanna make sure you don’t do anything stupid that could hurt you in the long run. So far we’ve been able to do that.”

            In the 20th minute, Martin scored the first of his three, tracking down a long, over-the-top ball from Doty into the center of the box. Martin beat two defenders, regained control and finished to make it 2-0.

            The score remained such until Martin struck again 3:30 into the second 40. The senior settled a Steve Price throw-in with his chest, turned and fired with his left. The ball dipped at the last moment, fooling an already grounded Jose Gonzalez, fore-spinning into the net for a 3-0 advantage.

            In the 49th minute, Ball curled a corner into the box where Quitero came sailing through for the flick-on score. Less than two minutes after that, Martin completed the hat trick by finishing a through ball from Ball and then Ball joined the fun by floating a free kick from 50 yards out to make it 6-0.

            The sixth-ranked Devils were themselves shocked at their own offensive outburst.

            “I thought we were gonna win — but at the same time I didn’t think there’d be a lot of opportunities to score six,” said Martin.

            Dutchtown (11-3) lighted the scoreboard in the 67th minute on a goal by David Caine. Jacob Bagley punched one in in the 73rd and Anietie Ebong finished a cross from Zach Silva with 3:24 to go.

            Still, those scores were little concern to SHS, which had most of its underclassmen in to run out the clock.

            “I expected us to come out strong and play strong, and we really did,” said Prosser. “In the first half and the beginning of the second half we were really able to make them struggle with our team speed and our aggressiveness. Once I saw their style of play, I could tell they would struggle with out team speed and we were able to exploit it.”

            Chad Bishop can be reached at (912) 489-9408.