By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

HOGANSVILLE – The Callaway Cavaliers won a shootout.

In its final regular-season game, Callaway’s boys’ soccer team got a goal from Ian Bryan in the final minute to beat Haralson County 5-4 on Thursday night.

There was no suspense in the girls’ game, with Callaway rolling to an 8-0 victory.

Between the games, the seniors for both teams were recognized.

In the boys’ game, Haralson County scored a goal with less than five minutes remaining to pull even at 4-4.

That’s the way it remained until, with about a minute left, a foul was called on a Haralson County player.

Following the free kick, the Haralson County goal keeper left his position, and Bryan ended up with the ball at his feet with nothing between himself and the net.

Bryan, who has been a consistent scorer this season, knocked the ball into the net to give the Cavaliers the lead, and this time they held onto it.

Callaway (11-7 overall) finished tied for the top spot in Region 5-AA, but it will be the number three seed for the state playoffs.

The Cavaliers will be on the road on Wednesday against the number two team from Region 7-AA.

Callaway had its offense working against Haralson County, which made up for some defensive breakdowns.

“Our midfield and forward play was extremely good,” Callaway coach Mike Petite said. “We moved the ball. We got tons of shot. We were generating opportunities. We had lots of chances, and that’s what you want to see. In the back, it was a little helter-skelter (defensively), and that’s going to happen. Fortunately tonight, we had enough offense to answer every time something happened. Every time they did something, we did something back.”

Naron Jones, one of the Callaway seniors who was honored before the game, got the scoring started with a goal in the fifth minute.

Haralson County answered a few minutes later with the tying goal.

After Tyler Lewis and Bryan scored to give the Cavaliers a 3-1 lead, the Rebels got a goal to make it a 3-2 game at the half.

After Haralson County tied it early in the second half, Jonathan Castillo scored in the 47th minute to put Callaway up 4-3.

The Cavaliers maintained that one-goal cushion until the Rebels scored late on a breakaway.

The Cavaliers responded with Bryan’s goal to make sure it would be a winning night for the seniors.

“It’s senior night, so you want to win for those boys,” Petite said. “And they did. And we had a senior score, and a couple of seniors assisted.”

In the girls’ game, the Lady Cavaliers dominated en route to the 8-0 victory.

Kelly Carlisle, who has had a monster junior season, scored four goals, and Kyla Montgomery, Brianne Vaught, Chloe McGuffin and Acia Stephens each had one goal.

Montgomery, Vaught and Stephens were all able to score on senior night.

Callaway led 7-0 at the half, and the second was shortened to 20 minutes because of the mercy rule.

“We used this game to work on possessions,” Callaway coach Shawna Yawn said. “We could have mercied them in the first half, but we used that opportunity to work on the things we’ve worked on all week.”

Callaway finished second in Region 5-AA, and it will host Rockmart on Tuesday in the first round of the state playoffs.