Welcome to after the Whistle here in the SDH Network. I look back at Friday night football on the Network, brought to us by our friends at Kaiser Permanente in Dalton for the Catamounts taking on Johnson Gainesville in a big non region matchup out of the blocks for both of these teams. What we'll have coming up here across after the whistle, we will get you your highlights, we'll get you your player of the game, and we'll get some postgame sound from both head coaches and from Hermont
Santana of the Dalton Catamounts. So let's not waste any time and let you know what happened in front of a chili condition, pretty big crowd for a Friday night, very very cool to be up there in Dalton too, broadcast Johnson Gainesville and the Catamounts for you on the network. So here are your highlights. Jason on the call, and we tell you who the player of the game is, courtesy of our friends at Oglethorpe University.
Three goals by the.
Time we were done, and a crazy ending.
Here you go, Gonzalez to take with the right foot, both hands in the air, delivered.
A couple of differflections and.
Popcorm goal goal goal Dalton and Luis Bavela got magnets in his boots. He's always finding that rebound. It falls to him at the top of the six and he's able to pop.
It past via Thro one nil.
Catamounts with twenty one oh six to play into the first half. A free kick. You don't want to get up on this pitch. Gonzalez puts it into a dangerous spot. The clearing headed attempt didn't get away and it fell to Favela. Doesn't try to blast it, just pops it past via Toro, one nil, Dalton. Favella's third goal of the week. Lopez not gonna take this one. I thought this would be in his wheelhouse. It's gonna be Gonzalez
to take it instead. Gonzalez with the right foot. Watch out for Lopez as a target here and the ball always seems to find Favella inside the eighteen as well. Gonzalez right under the crossboard Glassovo goal goal show. Gonzales skimmed off the underside of the crossbar over via Toro's head. No way that should be attempted, and gounze Zalez does it anyway.
Golasso for Gonzalez to nil. Dalton.
Everyone lining up trying to get on the end of that. Gonzalez says, nah I got other ideas. Puts it off the underside of the crossbar. No chance for via Toro. Perfectly hit two nil catamount Ruiz to Gonzalez. Gonzalez slips past one, Alex Gonzalez, slip past Joe Gonzalez over to the left side Acosta, he'll come forward, Halil Chavez once you get on the right foot, slips it back to Acosta in the eighteen Jordia Costao gol gold Johnson and we've got a game here in Dalton to to one.
Dalton with the lead. A little bit of pushing and shoving after the goal, the usual.
Trying to get to the ball. Goalkeeper doesn't want to let the team that scored on him get the ball. Johnson find the goal to cut the lead in half. Jordi Acosta making the run out of the back to tie it up. That goal breaks a lot of stretches of play for both teams. Dalton had been on a run where they hadn't conceded this year.
They have now.
Johnson had been on a run where they hadn't scored in a game and a half. They have now Choppies gar see off the crossbar, off the crossbar and off of Via Toro corner on the far side for Dalton. Choppies almost put the game away. Lopez will try to put it away by taking his time to bring this corner back into play.
One five to go A Lopez doesn't take his time.
He goes quick. Via Toro has to punch it away inside the six. It gets all the way through and wide goal kick. Nobody could find that deflection. David Limas will check back in for Johnson. Time running short for the Nights. Less than ninety seconds to go. Contora's gonna play it short to Doran into the middle, to Alex Gonzalez top of his own arc up the left side, Halil Chavez back to Contra gotta get into the attacking half Via Toro under pressure, He'll play it long down
the middle. Limas gets a touch to it, trueO can't find it. It's knocked away by armand Santana. Choppies turns into the middle, intercepted. Limas trying to find it for Johnson, trying to run through. A defender runs through with the arms swinging caught Plaza. Don't think he was swinging the arm at Plaza. I think he was trying to get position. Coaco continue to ride. At forty two seconds, Lopez up the right side, Gongora, Gongora poked away.
I by green model though, throw Dalton.
They've got the lead, they've got the clock on their side, and they've got thirty seconds to kill. Lopez throws it in, but it doesn't get over the touch line. That's gonna be a throw for Johnson. They gotta get forward fast. Eighteen seconds. Lopez will succeed in getting that one to east Ridge and that might just do it. The ball kids not paying any attention, well trained here in Dalton, thrown in quickly, Johnson trying to find it. Five seconds on the Clocket's out for another throw and that.
Will do it.
Here at Harmon Field, a classic Dalton with a two to one win for the second year in a row over the Johnson Knights. The goal from Joe Gonzalez the free kick, which was an amazing hit that ends up being the match winner. Luis Favella opened the scoring. Jordia Acosta cut the lead in half and made it very very interesting down the stretch and after all of the heated moments in that both teams slapping hands, giving each other high fives, dapping each other up. Game played in
the absolute right spirit here at Harmon Field tonight. Intense, high level, really well played from both of these teams. But Dalton the better team on the night and they will take the dub, their third of the season. Johnson falls to one and two. Gonna take a quick break. We'll come back to put a bow on the show right after this. Dalton two one winners over Johnson tonight at Harmon Field. Welcome back to Harmon Field here in Dalton.
The Catamounts two to one winners tonight over the Johnson Knights. A great second half as Johnson got back into it, maybe playing their best soccer of the season so far, but they couldn't find the second Dalton first goal conceded of the year. They do a great job in seeing everything out to get their third win of the year
to one tonight over perennial state title contenders Johnson. Tonight's Player the Game Award brought to you by Oglethorpe University, Atlanta's premier undergraduate learning experience and Soccer Powerhouse could go a few different directions with this, but Joe Gonzalez, the central midfielder for Dalton, he had the match winner. He will get the Player of the Game award, presented by
Oglethorpe University. An amazing free kick from Gonzalez kissed off the underside of the bar and in also really good play throughout in the midfield. Had that huge tackle late on Junior Castillo, a brilliant play. Ended up getting a yellow card after the after extracurricular side of it. But a great tackle from Gonzalez, a great goal from Joe Gonzalez, and he is your player of the game here in Dalton Tonight, presented by Oglethorpe University.
Now let's catch up with some folks as we get you wrapped up with what happened in Dalton. First off, let's find out what is in the mind after the match was over. Frank Zamore, the head coach of the Knights of Johnson, gains hard fought like.
It always is.
What do you think?
Yeah, I know, I mean it's always it's always a battle, you know. I think we came out a little flat first half. Dalton came out with a lot of energy intensity first half, but I think we settled in well second half. I think we possessed a little bit more than they did and created a couple of chances. It's always fine, man. So it's a good battle, good good game to get us ready for region that's coming up. You know, it's good, good way to test both teams.
And it looked like the Acosta move was what kind of triggered things offensively there in the second forty minutes.
You know, we just had a little bit more freedom to push up. You know, he was able to get free and get that goal. But we just settled in a little bit better second half. We started moving the ball a little bit better, possessing playing our style. You know, it's just hard for us to set all in that first half, but once we were able to move the ball around, you know, we created those opportunities there.
With all of the graduation that you had last year, six seniors this year, what are your thoughts so far three matches in about how everybody's coming together?
Yeah, no, I mean I think it's so early in the season. You know, I think we've played some good teams. North scythe a solid team. Definitely don't you know. These are the type of games we want to We want to have early in the season to get tested, to get exposed, see what these guys are made out of, and see what we need to get better and improve on, so you know, be able to I was solid the rest of the season.
Now of the flip side of things in Dalton as we'd run across the field from one end to the other, catching up with senior captain Hermont Santana and head coach Matt Cheap.
Eighty minutes and was survived and challenging conditions. What'd you think?
Yeah, I thought the second half was not our game. We let them dictate what was going on and they spread us out. We weren't very compact and they stretched us out and they made some really good runs. They're really technical on the ball, and they turned it and dribbled at us and took us on and the spots beat us. So we got to be able to improve on that. But the guy who's hung tough and managed to keep him out of the net twice and hung
on to win. So we're very pleased with that. And this is the kind of game that's you know, it's a non region game and if we look at it honestly, stay positive about it, we can learn something from this. So that's our goal.
I was going to say, this is what you do this time of year. You want to challenge yourself, go best on best, find non region opponents that you know will have that same kind of quality come season three in the postseason.
You got that tonight, Yeah, we did, absolutely. That's why we played Johnson and like McIntosh and you know, we're playing some of the top teams in the state and we really get a good test of ourselves at this early point of the season. So like those two games pretty tough. I don't know that we'll see that kind of thing until the playoffs maybe are You know, Southeast is always tough and really hyped up. But that was some really quality soccer.
So I was I was going to say, I mean, you end up with quick turn you go to McIntosh, you come down here, and you come back. But that's kind of what the postseason does, where you're going to have to do quick turns three and four days and be ready for best on best on best on dust.
Yeah, absolutely got to turn around really quick and be ready to play, especially with no practice because we came back from McIntosh, it was a snow day here. We had snow so we couldn't practice. And then yesterday the conditions were just awful. We couldn't get outside and practice, so we hadn't you know, gotten on the field to work on some of the stuff we needed to work on from the Macintosh game. So you know, we're out there learning on the field, and we got a lot
of new players too. We're trying to figure out who who does what, who can do what in different situations. We got a lot of people. We just got to figure out the role for everybody in different spots.
When you have snow days and weather challenges early part of the season, how do you work around that to try to keep learning.
Well, you know, we post video online from from the last game. Letn' watch it. But you know, when the superintendent says, don't put kids on the road, you don't put kids on the road, No questions asked, and you just enjoy the day off, you know. And then and then the next day we had it. You know a
little indoor facility. It's small, but we're able to get in there and do some work, do what you can, try to build some team CODI camaraderie and stay in shape and you know, do whatever you can, but not as good as we could have done on the field.
There's a tough one out there on that What do you think?
Yeah, it was a tough game. John's a good opponent. Uh, glad we were able to come out with a win. My team, I think we did really good. We worked really hard for it and yeah, just gonna to be where would have come out with the win.
We got the first two goals on the board at the tube lead at the half. What was the talk about in here at half time?
Yeah, it was it was good getting up, but we know two it's not a good lead to have because they could come back at any moment. So it was just it was just work our tails off to try to not let them get back in the game.
Second half, they got the goal on the board, and then the last ten minutes was just absolutely crazy out there. What was it like out there those last ten.
Yeah, it was insane. It was really tiring. That goal definitely gave him a lot of momentum. We were just trying to defend for our lives, trying to hold on and I think we did a pretty good job holding him off.
Where do you think you are after the first three matches with all of these faces trying to get figured out?
I think we're still trying to figure out everybody where everybody should be on the field. But we've been working on it, and we've been working hard in practices and I think the more the game's come, the better it's going to be. And we're just going to keep trying hard. And where are you on it?
So the win for Dalton gets them to three and oh, they've only given up one goal so far this season. In those three wins, they've scored eleven along the way. First up with a six nil win over Calhoun back on Valentine's Day, Then the match in McIntosh that you heard here on the network as well early in the week. Then the win over Johnson Gainesville. So it's six nail to Calhoun, three nil at McIntosh, and then back home it was a two to one win over Johnson. Now
they get a handful of days off. Next up for them as a matchup on the twenty seventh against Pace Academy. Then the quick turn start Reagon play in Dalton against Hiram on the twenty eighth, and then the matchup that we're also keeping an eye on in the SDH network ive Stavia Hills comes over from Alabama to play in Dalton on March the fourth. That'll be a six o'clock start over there with those two powerhouses going at it here.
Early in twenty twenty five, Johnson gains drops to one and two on the year, and once again with the discussions that we had on the on the air, a team that while you lose a lot of starters, you lose a lot of firepower. You do have six seniors, but everyone's still trying to get acclimated to one another right now. One and two this season for Johnson Gainsell at West Hall of three nil win, then a loss at North forsythe two nil, then the loss to Dalton
two one. Next up for Johnson Gainsell's a matchup against Cherokee Bluff on the twenty fifth, and then on the twenty eighth they drift into region play with a game at Pickens, and then on the fourth of March it is a matchup at home against White County. Thanks to everybody who made the broadcast possible. Thanks to all of you who were listening to the broadcast. Next up for us on the tour of the State of Georgia when it comes to high school soccer here and the GHSA.
It's going to be Monday, So Monday night we will be in Lincolnton for an East Georgia Rivalry boys and Girls games five thirty and seven thirty Thompson visiting Lincoln County. So it's gonna be fun to be in Lincolnton for the first time as we catch up with what will Homskis and Lincoln County have been doing to build that
program on both the boys and the girls sides. Once again, five thirty will come on a little before air to get you acclimated in Lincolnton, say five twenty five, and then a little before seven thirty to get you acclimated on the boy's side of things, and it's gonna be fun. You can go to our Mixler app m i xlr, download the Mixler app, then go to Soccer down here, follow favorite and market because when you do that, when there is a broadcast that does pop up, you get
email notifications. So if you don't have the app dialed up immediately while you're wandering around and doing all of your Aaron's link Monday afternoon, then you'll know and then you can dial us up as once again Thompson visits Lincoln County in so it'll be the beginning of yet another very very busy week of high school soccer on at the SDH Network, presented by our friends at Kaiser Permanente. Fun environment last night, great matchup and a cold environment.
But that's what this is all about, these kind of matchups early on in the season here in twenty twenty five. That's after the whistle for Dalton and Johnson Gainesville. For Jason, I'm John Thanks for dropping by and being a part of everything we do here at the SDH Network. Stick and stay play safe everybody. Moochi plots, y'all. We will see you next time.