Lady Warhawks’ postseason run meets abrupt end against Pope

WARNER ROBINS — Veterans (12-8) entered Wednesday’s playoff game hoping to advance past the first round for the first time since 2022, but Pope (11-5) made sure that wasn’t possible with a 10-0 victory.

The two teams played roughly 60 minutes of an 80-minute game after Lady Greyhounds freshman Bella Markus dribbled past the defense and delivered the death blow with 19:46 remaining in the second half.

It ended a tough game for the Lady Warhawks, who struggled to get out from under the paws of another Atlanta-area school.

One early sequence in which Veterans built from the back on the left side felt representative of the evening.

They created good passing lanes and darted the ball between each other. They managed to get the ball nearly all the way up the side, but an inaccurate pass gave the ball back to Pope. They scored their first goal four minutes later, and put five more through the net before halftime to build a 6-0 lead.

Lady ‘Hawks head coach Patrick Hunter was a man of few words after the game.

“These are tough because you know how far you got to get to,” Hunter said. “You can do well in your area but there’s a reason why I schedule teams like that in non-region [games] so we can see that play before playoffs.”

Veterans played Hebron Christian and McIntosh during the regular season, both firm 7-3 and 11-1 losses respectively.

The Lady ‘Hawks lose five seniors this year, but one encouraging fact is how young the group is.

“It’s always tough when you lose a senior class,” Hunter said. “One of the five is going to go out and continue to play in college. Her and the others, [we] wish them all the best. As far as underclassmen, we got a lot of youth. Any given game day we’re playing four or five freshmen. The future looks bright.”

That youth was sometimes evident in poor positioning or accuracy in passes. But the more games they experience like this, the better.

“I hope it hurts,” Hunter said. “Don’t dwell on it, but know how far we gotta go.”

UP NEXT

Veterans ends their season 12-8 overall and 8-2 in Region 2-5A.

Pope will advance to play Alexander in the second round of the GHSA state tournament.