The Vidalia Indians soccer team came up big on Wednesday, defeating Tattnall County, the defending state champion and the current #4 team in class AA, 4-2. Jude Owen and Hussam Al-Rababa’a each scored two goals to lead the Indians, who moved to 5-5 overall and 4-5 in Region 3AA play.
“I’m proud of this team.” Said Vidalia boys coach Corbin Howard. “We’ve known since January that we have quality on this side, but we’ve had to work hard to pull together and play with one heartbeat.”
Vidalia fell behind early when the Battle Creek Warriors scored the night’s first goal at the 4:30 mark. But the Indians would fight back and tie the match at 1-1 when Owen scored his first goal at the 9:50 mark.
The score remained knotted at one until Owen hit his second score of the night at the 36-minute mark, giving Vidalia their first lead of the night at 2-1. But that lead would evaporate quickly, as Tattnall tied the game one minute later at the 37th minute of play to tie the match at 2-2.
Following intermission, Al-Rababa’a put the Indians up 3-2, scoring his first goal of the night 11 minutes into the second half, and then would seal the deal with goal number two at the 26:30 minute of play in the second half to put the Indians up 4-2.
Alex Muzafarov had eight saves on the night for Vidalia, which won its third game in a row and will next host Brantley County Friday night at Buck Cravey Field.
“We get a chance to play the best teams in 2A each and every week, and Tattnall is a team for which we have loads of respect,” said Howard. “Our guys showed up and were ready to play the defending state champs. We’ve had a couple of matches this season that didn’t end up with the results we expected, but we played “our way” Tuesday night and look to continue this good run of form!”
The Vidalia girls also got a victory against Tattnall with a 4-1 win as they scored three goals in the second half of play to move to 6-4 overall and 5-4 in Region play.
Friday’s action gets underway at 5:00, with the girls taking to the pitch and the boys following the girls’ action.(Courtesy of Vidalia Athletics)
