Perry keeps region championship hopes alive with 4-1 win at Warner Robins

WARNER ROBINS — When Perry (8-6, 7-2 Region 1-4A) beat Benedictine on Tuesday they gave themselves a chance to win the region, and that dream stayed alive on Thursday with a 4-1 win at Warner Robins.

The Panthers started their season 1-5 and it took a penalty kick shootout for them to beat New Hampstead the first time around. But since their first region win Perry is 7-1 and has won five straight games.

Playing on a different, rougher surface from the usual turf at The Pit threw the Panthers off to start. The offense struggled and the defense allowed the Demons to put a couple of shots on goal.

Goalkeeper Arthur McDonald saved a close ball that hit the crossbar and shot down. A few times he told his defense “no shots,” and after that particular play head coach Nathan Dooley said, “Wake up Perry!”

“I think the slow start to begin with was kind of the field conditions. This field’s probably the toughest field we’ve played on this season,” Dooley said. “In that exact moment…Warner Robins had like nine guys in the box so they were just trying to find an angle and I think we just didn’t come up lucky. It kept deflecting off different guys.”

Carson Camp responded to the close call with a goal through the right side of the net with 26:38 until halftime.

It wasn’t quite enough to get the Panthers going; they came up empty in a lot of their set pieces before Caleb Caulley followed up a Warner Robins save with a goal to put Perry up 2-0.

The Demons scored on a penalty kick before the half, but that break seemed to be what the Panthers needed.

“At halftime I just told them to block out the things that we can’t control like field conditions, and I just reminded them that we work every day at practice on possession,” Dooley said. “So I said let’s just try to get back to playing how we normally play…We were able to do that, kind of settle down and just played our game.”

Perry scored just as much as they did in the first half, but the offense was more fluid. They were able to get good touches on through balls and booming switches. The Panthers finally converted on a set piece with a Camp header 11 minutes into the final half.

J.D. Arnette’s tricky dribbling allowed him to put a beautiful through ball into the box, which Trent Torres came down to rifle through the net for a 4-1 lead with 30 minutes to play.

Although they didn’t capitalize on anything for the remainder of the game, the process was significantly better.

Now Perry will shift their focus to post spring break soccer, which includes the final region game against Warner Robins, a few non-region games and hopefully a deep playoff run.

“Coming back from spring break is always a tough time, so we definitely want to get our legs back into soccer shape,” Dooley said. “That’s what some of those [non-region] games are for at the end of the season, to get ready for the playoffs…Ultimately we’re just looking to tighten up some of the things that we’ve done, get her the break and get back together and try to make a really good run in the playoffs.”

UP NEXT

Perry comes back from spring break with a road game against Veterans on April 8.

Warner Robins plays Northside at McConnell-Talbert stadium on April 8.