ACE Lady Gryphons Fall in Final Four

The 18-4 ACE Lady Gryphons were defeated by the 16-1 Model Lady Blue Devils 1-0 in the Final Four

MACON, Georgia – (41NBC/WMGT) – At Perkins Field Thursday evening, the Academy of Classical Education Lady Gryphons were defeated by the Model Blue Devils 1-0 in the GHSA Class A D-I Semifinals to end their season.

Model scored the lone goal of the game on a free kick from the corner in the second minute of the first half.

After the game, ACE Head Coach Robby Jones spoke on how proud he is of his Lady Gryphons squad, and what to look forward to in this bright future of the ACE Girls Soccer program.

“Well, the last two years we ended on kind of a lopsided loss in the Final Four” said Coach Jones. “This year, very tight game, probably could have gone either way. Our goalie, Macy Pierce, made some phenomenal saves to keep us in it. To go out on a very tight game is much better than, you know, a 4, 5, or 6 goal loss, which we’ve experienced in the past. We had 18 wins this year. That’s a lot of victories, the most we’ve ever had in one season. We just bonded really well, gelled really well, and just learned a lot about ourselves and our teammates, and I think they just established a really good bond and culture on the field that that translated off the field. Very proud that despite giving an early goal, I think the first couple minutes of the game, they still fought the whole time, and you know, you never want to see a group give up, and it just got back and forth, and started to get physical, and legs were starting to get tired, but they just kept working up, working at it, and fighting. So the message is you probably should be proud of the effort you gave for your teammates, because I think ultimately, they just really stepped it up and and were fighting for their their teammates, instead of against an opponent. So I was just proud that everybody was given their best effort, and kept fighting, and try to get that equalizer that was just out of our reach.”

Coach Jones went onto speak about the future of the Lady Gryphons program, “So, starting to close the gap, starting to really raise the standard, raise the bar for this next group coming through. So, we do have a lot of players coming back. We’ll miss a group of seven seniors, but we have a large roster, and I think this was a valuable experience for them to have and to motivate them for the offseason.”