ATLANTA — In the first round of the Class 5A playoffs, the Eastside Lady Eagles suffered a 6-1 loss to No. 1 seed Midtown. The loss officially eliminates Eastside from this year’s playoffs and brings its season to an end.
Head coach Joel Singleton acknowledged his team’s effort despite the loss on Wednesday.
“Tough way to end our season.” Eastside coach Joel Singleton said after the match. “We played a great match the first 20 or so minutes. I felt like we had a good plan coming in and knew what we needed to do but that’s ok. It’s been a great season.”
Though it was a five-goal defeat for the Lady Eagles, their goalkeeper Katie Oakley managed to keep Midtown’s offense in check out of the gate. But the Lady Knights’ offensive penetration eventually broke through for their first goal of the night in the 29th minute.
Midtown doubled its lead right before halftime with another goal, jumping out to 2-0 at intermission. In the first half, Lauren Davis and Bailey Love were both able to fire off shots, but they were both stopped by Midtown’s goalkeeper.
Another opportunity for Eastside to score came within the first minute of the second half, but the Lady Eagles couldn’t finish. Midtown responded by scoring a goal with 37:55 left to play to push the Lady Knights lead to 3-0. In the 11th minute of the half Midtown scored again to make it 4-0.
Eastside avoided a shutout when Love sent in a direct free kick that Lizzie Teasley bodied into the Midtown net to make it 4-1 with 21:02 left to play.
Midtown responded quickly to the lone Eastside goal making its lead 5-1 with 20:18 left to play. Midtown scored again to increase the final score to 6-1.
Singleton had high praise for his 2022 squad.
“This group has been my favorite to coach in all my seasons,” Singleton said. “And that says a lot, because I’ve always had excellent players and teams. This group really got along well, played for each other and took pride in themselves in such a positive fashion. I’m so proud of them.”
The Lady Eagles finished with an 11-5-1 record.
