It was Senior Night for the Bryan County girls’ soccer team but a pair of sophomores stole the show.

Kolbie English scored a school record four goals and fellow sophomore Liz Harvey added two as the Redskins posted an 8-0 win over Jenkins Tuesday night at Redskins Stadium. Harvey had set the previous mark when she had three goals against Claxton two weeks ago.

It wasn’t a total wash for the seniors, however, as Ava Prater scored the game’s final two goals, the second coming in the final second and senior keeper Skylar Lee teamed with Harvey to post the Redskins’ ninth shutout of the season.

Bryan County (9-6-2) had Lee in goal in the first half. She switched positions with Harvey who played keeper—or in this case keepaway—in the second half.

Bryan County will conclude regular season play Friday with a game at Treutlen County before hosting Swainsboro (5-12) in an opening round game of the GHSA Class A-D1 state playoffs at 6 p.m. next Tuesday. This will be the first home playoff game ever for girls soccer.  

When they take on Treutlen, the Redskins girls will have an opportunity to get an early look as to how they may compare with Swainsboro which beat Treutlen, 1-0, in two overtimes on Tuesday.

It was Bryan County’s third game since a “disappointing” 1-0 over Metter which left them tied with the Tigers with identical 6-2 Region 3A-DI records. They were relegated to the No. 2 seed due to tiebreakers.

The Redskins lost at Bradwell Institute, 3-1, last Friday and then had a 0-0 tie at McIntosh County Academy on Monday before cruising past the Warriors.

Coach Kristin Barnhill said she did not believe her team had suffered a letdown following the Metter game and thinks the Redskins are in a good spot going into the playoffs.

“I think they’re even more determined now because of how close we got (to winning the region) and how close we are getting to the next level,” Barnhill said. “The Bradwell game was at the end of spring break and McIntosh was the first day back from break.”

“Yesterday at McIntosh we came out flat and just didn’t have it but today we came out strong and worked the ball around really well.”

Jenkins put up a stiff fight in the early going and it wasn’t until after nearly 13 minutes of play that Harvey finally broke the ice with an open field breakaway. After missing on a couple of early opportunities Harvey drilled the ball home from about 15 yards out.

Four minutes later Harvey broke out of the pack and again easily beat Warriors’ keeper Ava Maloney who had no one between her and the Redskins standout.

From that point on it was all English for the Redskins who had their best offensive night of the season. Their previous best was a 6-0 win over Windsor Forest followed by a 5-0 victory against Claxton.

English, who missed several games due to injury, got her first goal with 14:33 left in the first half when she outraced everyone and found herself in a one-and-one situation. She booted the ball into the center of the net from point blank range.

The speedy sophomore got her second goal at the 7:19 mark and gave Bryan County a 5-0 halftime advantage when she scored 85 seconds before the break.

With a 5-0 lead against a team which had shown it was going to have trouble scoring, an expected letdown never came.

“I think we stayed focused and got it together when they had to,” Barnhill said. “I was happy, too, that I got to play everybody.”

English got her fourth goal 10 minutes into the second half and then Prater got in on the act in the closing minutes to complete the win.