SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. — Wednesday was rough sledding for the Social Circle Redskins as they suffered a 3-1 loss at the hands of No. 4 seed Trion High School. The loss bounced the Redskins out of the Class A-Public state playoffs in the first round, ending their season.
But, head coach Jim Corasaniti wasn’t at all shocked at the quality opponent his team faced in Trion.
“[Trion] could’ve easily been the 1-seed,” Corasaniti said. “I knew that was a good team. It’s disheartening and we didn’t play our best game and they played a great game. And that’s what it is. [Our players] played hard and didn’t quit, but it wasn’t the result we wanted.”
It was close for the majority of the contest Wednesday night. There were a lot of chippy, tenseful moments with both teams aggressively attacking all game long.
Trion came out with more of a hot start putting up three shots on goal within the first eight minutes of game time. Goalkeeper Jase Peters had a couple of impressive saves to keep the Bulldogs scoreless during that stretch.
However, Trion finally broke through off a corner kick that led to a goal for the Bulldogs with 31:29 remaining in the first half.
The next 30 minutes featured both teams getting close to scoring more goals, but both teams unable to net a goal. That was until the Redskins were awarded a free kick with less than a minute to go in the opening half.
Aidan Garner took the free kick that found Jude Nelson near the right post of Trion’s goal. After a brief scuffle for the ball, Nelson successfully netted the goal with 39.7 seconds remaining, knotting the score up 1-1 headed to halftime.
The second half was more of the same with both teams battling for everything all match long. In the final 30 minutes of action, though, Trion netted two goals to extend and solidify its first round win and eliminate Social Circle from playoff contention.
With a team that is mainly made up of sophomores and freshmen, Corasaniti hopes this early exit from the state playoffs will help the younger players for next season.
“[The underclassmen] know what it is like to lose a big game now,” Corasaniti said. “And they won’t want to do it again, because it hurts. The younger players, I think, learned from this and know the preparation it’ll take.”
As a result of Wednesday’s loss, the Redskins’ season ultimately comes to an end. They finished 2022 with a 17-3 overall record while going 13-1 in Region 8A-Public. Social Circle also claimed its first region championship in four years this season.
And, even though the Redskins won’t advance any further this season, Corasaniti recognized that it was still a season to remember with all the team accomplished. Now, though, Social Circle will plan for next season.
“We’ll build on [this season’s success] for next year,” Corasaniti said. “We’ll have summer camps, then we’ll start conditioning and, before you know it, it’ll be January and we’ll be back out here again.”
