The day didn’t get off to a good start for the Bryan County girls soccer team and it only got worse as it dropped a 4-1 decision to Temple Tuesday night in the opening round of the GHSA Class A-D1 state playoffs. Making their first playoff appearance since 2016 the Redskins had to deal with some early nerves following an encounter with traffic problems on their 250-mile trek to Temple. They fell behind early and couldn’t catch up in bowing out.

The Bryan County boys team, in the playoffs for the third straight year, played at Lamar County Wednesday night.

Temple jumped out to a 3-0 halftime lead and it was too much of a deficit for the Redskins whose strength is their defense.

“We came out a little sluggish and unsure of ourselves,” Coach Kristin Barnhill said. “We were a little flustered because we hit traffic on I-75 and got there (Temple, Ga.) about 4:35 and game time was 5 p.m.

“We didn’t get to go through our usual warmups. We gave up a goal in the first six minutes and I think that shook us a little. Then we gave up two more midway through the first half and we didn’t create any shots on goal.”

Freshman Liz Harvey, who had shut out Screven County and Woodville- Tompkins in the last two games of the season after being moved to goal due to injuries, started in goal for Bryan County and after the early outburst settled down and wound up with five first half saves.

In order to generate more offense Harvey was moved back to the field— she led the Redskins in goals and shots on goal this season—and Skylar Lee was moved into goal which she had played all season. Lee had 112 saves going into the Temple game.

“Skylar made some huge saves to keep us in it,” Barnhill said. “We finally started playing our game and got the ball moving.”

Harvey finally got the Redskins on the board with 13 minutes left in the game when she followed up on a missed shot by Harleigh Thurston.

“The ball bounced out to Liz, who was probably 2530 yards out, and she just hit it over the goalkeeper’s head into the net,” Barnhill said. “They scored again to make it 4-1. I’m proud of the girls. They played until the final whistle and never gave up.

“Compared to last year it’s been night and day. To go from one win last year and finishing last to five wins and third-place this year is huge for this program. We had five one-goal losses, four in the region. That shows you how far these girls have come and how hard they have worked.”