Raiders, Cats advance

Saturday, April 30, 2011

DALTON, Ga. - It was apparent that Southeast Whitfield's Alex Rosillio was having fun. It was apparent by the smile on his face during parts of the game. It was highly evident when he was attempting cartwheels during the game.

Of course, scoring two goals and watching your team shut out the opponent gives plenty of reason to have fun.

Rosillio's scores paced the Raiders to a 4-0 win Friday over North Atlanta High School in the first round of Georgia's Class AAA boys' soccer state playoffs. Across town, Dalton also advanced to the second round by edging Riverwood 5-4.

"It was real important for us to get this win," Rosillio said. "You don't always know how hard your first opponent is in the playoffs."

Southeast's other two goals came off headers. In the first half, Noel Pimentel had a throw-in near the box that Zeke Nunez was easily able to put away. Six minutes into the second half, Omar Hernandez had a free kick that Pimentel headed in.

Rosillio scored on a first-half penalty kick, then took a nice through pass from Nunez and scored the final goal.

"The guys followed the game plan," Southeast coach Jamison Griffin said. "We talked about scoring two in the first half and two in the second, and we did just that.

"North Atlanta presented exactly what I thought they would - they were very physical - but I liked that we kept our composure throughout."

• Dalton 5, Riverwood 4: Although giving up two goals in the first two minutes, the Catamounts responded with three first-half goals of their own and held on to win.

Ramiro Huitanda had two goals and an assist for Dalton. His feed to Ivan Cruz in the 58th minute gave the Catamounts a 5-3 advantage, but Riverwood cut the deficit in half on a penalty kick in the final minutes.

"We finally woke up," Dalton coach Matt Cheaves said of the slow start. "I was happy we were able to come back, though. We passed well and finally started playing after the first few minutes."