Tennis boys win thriller over Appling

On April 26, Jeff Davis Boys’ Soccer hosted Appling County for a Sweet 16 matchup. This is the first time that both teams faced each other in the playoffs and the first time in boys’ program history that they hosted a Sweet 16 match.
Jeff Davis came into this match with a chip on their shoulder after having two straight defeats from Appling earlier in the season. Less than two minutes into the match, Colby Yarbrough took a free kick and sent a ball into the box, where the ball would go straight to Gael Valora and head it and open up the scoring to make it 1-0.
After a few minutes of going back and forth, Appling County made it 1-1. Jeff Davis responded quickly from a corner, as Josue Avila sent the ball towards the back post and Gael Valora again headed it to make the score 2-1 at the half.
Appling County scored 10 minutes into the 2nd half to make the score 2-2. A few minutes later, Gael Valora took the ball all the way down the line and went inside the box and passed the ball to Tony Toledo, who scored an easy goal to make it 3-2.
After more back and forth, Appling County received a penalty kick and converted it to make it 3-3. Jeff Davis again responded as Gael sent Konnor Munsayac a through ball in front of goal and converted it to make 4-3.
The lead did not last long as Appling came back and made it 4-4 and sent the game to overtime.
The first half of overtime was back and forth and no team took the lead. Less than 2 minutes left in the second half of OT, JT Clifton was fouled outside the box, giving Jeff Davis the best chance to score in the last minute. Fabian Valdelamar stepped up to take the free kick, and with 1:33 left in the game, he scored the goal to win the game for Jeff Davis. T
he game ended 5-4 in favor of Jeff Davis and they would go on to advance to the Elite 8, the first time since 2019. Jeff Davis hosted the Elite 8, for the first time in program’s history, and took on Providence Christian Academy April 30.