Blairsville, Georgia- The #2 seed Union County Lady Panthers soccer team hosted the #3 seed Temple Tigers in the first round of the GHSA Soccer State Playoffs.

The Lady Panthers came out and attacked offensively and forced the Lady Tigers to stop them. The Panthers had multiple shots on goal to begin the game but just couldn’t get anything in. The Panthers defense turned everything back as the Lady Panthers were doing a great job shutting the Tigers down. After the first 20 minutes, the Lady Panthers finally scored as Sophomore Haleigh Helcher made the great assist to Freshman Lara Turner as she scored the Lady Panthers first goal. The Lady Panthers had possession most of the first half and really controlled the pace of the game. The Lady Panthers led 1-0 to end the first half. To start the second half, the Lady Panthers stayed in attack mode and had a lot of shots on goal right out of the gate. After the first 15 minutes Junior Kaylee Helton scored to put the Lady Panthers up 2-0. Less than 10 minutes later, Turner made a great pass to assist Helton as she scored her 2nd goal in less than 10 minutes to put the Lady Panthers up 3-0. The Lady Tigers later scored to cut the Panther lead but couldn’t complete the comeback. The Lady Panthers defeat the Tigers 3-1 and advance to the Sweet 16. The Lady Panthers will travel to Lovett on Wednesday April 28.