The Newnan and Starr's Mill soccer teams are very familiar to each other. Last season, the two teams met in the regular season and the state playoffs. Starr's Mill has always had the upper hand, so far, and Tuesday night's results were no different.
The Starr's Mill boys defeated Newnan 5-2 with Nick Bugara scoring three goals and adding an assist. Keegan Hanie and Kyle Nowicki scored the other goals with Corey Cross generating the other assist. The Panthers took a 2-0 lead before Newnan scored with nine minutes remaining in the first half. Bugara got his second goal of the game less than two minutes in to the second half and scored again on a header with 22 minutes remaining.
Coach Mike Hanie was pleased with the way the two teams played. In last year's state playoff game, the play was very physical and the Panthers lost midfielder Wes Kent for the remainder of the playoffs.
"Both teams played hard and it was a much cleaner game tonight," said Hanie, who has the Panthers undefeated in the region and 6-3-3 overall.
The Lady Panthers followed the boys with a 5-2 win of their own. Starr's Mill had a 3-0 lead at the half with Kelley O'Hara scoring on an assist from Lucy Martin, Martin scoring on an assist from O'Hara and Gina Goforth also scoring on assist from O'Hara. In the second half, Goforth would add another goal on an assist from Adrienne Phillips and Phillips would score a goal of her own. Newnan would score twice in the second half, one of which came in a furious final stretch towards the end of the game, but Starr's Mill would prevail over Newnan once again.
The following night saw Starr's Mill's girls defeat East Coweta 14-2. Emily Stevens has four goals in the game, while Kelley O'Hara added three. Lucy Martin, Gina Goforth and Katie Jacobsen each scored two goals and Laura McCalla scored one. Jacobsen had four assists in the game, while Goforth added three, Beth Meadors added two and O'Hara, Martin, Stevens, Sarah Burke and Viktoria Frost each added one. The Lady Panthers were scheduled to meet McEachern last night at 7 p.m.
The Starr's Mill boys beat East Coweta 2-0 on Wednesday. Bugara scored both goals for the Panthers with Kyle Nowicki notching an assist. Starr's Mill will be off until a home game against Milton on April 12 at 8 p.m.






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