The law firm of Sidney Ziglar and Baylea Payne and Associates (the Alcovy High School girls’ soccer team) closed a case pretty early on Tuesday, defeating rival Newton 10-0 by mercy rule at home.

Ziglar and Payne had an excellent season last year as freshmen and they're running with that this year after combining for nine goals Tuesday night.

“They play so well off each other,” Alcovy Coach Chris Ubriaco said.

All things considered, Newton came out playing pretty well defensively, though their offense struggled to get the ball past midfield.

Ziglar scored the first goal of the night, netting one in the 36th minute of the game. Payne would have a few opportunities slip through her hands but Ziglar sped down the left sideline in the 22nd minute and found Payne wide open 10 feet in front of the goal, for an easy Alcovy score.

Just a couple minutes later, Payne got free dribbling down the middle past defenders to return the favor by finding Ziglar for the third goal of the game, giving Alcovy a 3-0 lead. Ziglar found Payne again in the 15th minute and Ziglar scored the final goal of the first half as the Tigers led 5-0.

In a span of five minutes in the second half, from the 33rd minute to the 28th, the Lady Tigers poured it on and scored five more goals for the mercy rule victory. The only goal that didn’t come from Ziglar or Payne, came from McKenzie Rowland from about 25 feet out.

“They went out there and played their game, they put the ball in the back of the net. At the end of the day, you can’t be too upset with 10-nothing 51 minutes into the game,” Ubriaco said.

As far as Ziglar and Payne go, they’re a formidable force, competing against each other while complimenting one another quite well.

“They’re both competing against each other to see who can score more goals, but the good news is every single time it looked like Baylea was scoring, Sydney was the one that was assisting it,” Ubriaco said. “It’s a good competition, but at the end of the day as long as it gets put in the back of the net I don’t care who does it.”