Perry goes back-to-back, Carson Camp claims golden boot in 3-0 victory against Warner Robins

PERRY — Perry started the 2026 season 1-5, and it looked like a second consecutive region title was out of the question.

Fast forward to Friday night and the Panthers (9-7, 8-2 Region 1-4A) hoisted another region trophy to add to head coach Nathan Dooley’s growing cabinet of awards with a 3-0 victory against Warner Robins (2-11, 1-7 Region).

“Probably right before region play and into those first few early games,” Dooley said on when the season started to turn around. “We tried, in those first six games, six different lineups and we finally found one that clicked and started to work, and we’ve just built on that ever since.”

The region opener against Wayne County started a four-game road trip — a tough place to be when you’re looking to find your footing.

But the Panthers traveled to New Hampstead and eked out an overtime win. They edged Ware County to start their first winning streak.

Losing to Benedictine in the final game of the out-of-town stretch proved to be a footnote in an otherwise phenomenal finish to the region schedule, which included five straight wins and two shutouts.

As a team with seven seniors, Perry leaned heavily on their upperclassmen.

“Obviously our senior captains, Noah Wendler and Grant Vickers,” Dooley said on the players who led the change. “We actually had to move them to different positions and they continued to play well no matter where we put them on the field…juniors J.D. Arnette and especially Carson Camp…he’s our leading goals scorer on the season but tonight he became the leading goal scorer for the region.”

Camp highlighted an already celebratory evening by scoring two goals and claiming the Region 1-4A lead in goals scored this season.

Both came in the second half, the first an essential penalty kick score with 24:46 left to play. Just over two minutes later he added another to unofficially put the game out of reach. In the coming payoff run Dooley wants more of the same from his star up front.

“Just continuing to do what he does, honestly, and hopefully the ball finds the back of the net a few more times,” Dooley said. “He’s just been fantastic for us up top. He works hard, constantly finds a way to give us opportunities to score.”

One of the things that may trouble them in the postseason is their propensity for slow first-half offense.

The Panthers’ midfield did a good job moving the ball into the attacking third but the club had a hard time finishing.

Most of their misses were over the crossbar, and they varied from just off to attempting to meet Artemis II in orbit (ignoring the fact that the craft splashed down around 8:07 p.m.).

“At halftime I told them we just needed to settle down and try to possess the ball a little bit more, try to string together a few more passes before we looked to attack on goal,” Dooley said. “We kind of switched around tactically a little bit what we were doing in the midfield as well to give us some better spacing and opportunities and I think them just executing all of that allowed those opportunities to happen.”

Perry cleaned it up in the final 40 minutes and saw significantly fewer balls sail over the goal. In order to advance past the first round, where last season ended, they’ll have to do that from the beginning.

UP NEXT

Perry travels up the road to face Houston County on April 14.

Warner Robins will host New Hampstead on April 14.