Newton Citizen

CONYERS -- A lot of scoring took place in Tuesday's Rockdale-Walnut Grove game. Unfortunately it was all from the Lady Warriors as the Class AAA team beat Rockdale 8-0.

Walnut Grove's Sophia Matonak had a hat trick, scoring the first three goals of the game.

While Walnut Grove had seven goals in the first half, the Lady Bulldogs did not have any shots on goal.

"We have several girls that are new to the sport. We also have a few seniors that are actually coming out for the first time this season," said Rockdale head coach Danny Meador. "We're still learning how to be soccer players and learning how to read the game and think ahead."

Sydney Vadney scored twice in the first half along with Meghan O'Loughlin and Kaisha Jones.

The Lady Bulldogs concentrated on defense in the second half with all 11 players on their side of the field. Not that it helped much as the Lady Warriors' Tanner Johnston scored despite being outmanned by four players.

Even though Rockdale lost in the end, it played hard the entire game and only gave up one goal in the second half. A lot of that goes to the play of keeper Kellina Fair

"She's a competitor and one of our senior leaders and our captain," said Meador of Fair. "She stayed with it despite the number of shots she took. She really gave them a battle throughout.

"I think we showed some fight in the second half and were able to hold them back a little bit better than we did the first half. We had a slow start and need to learn how to come out harder from the beginning."