By Robert Griffin

Sports Writer

Lagrange High goal keeper Donnie Palmer stepped back into the goal, put his head down, and took a deep breath.

Palmer had already blocked two attempts by Troup High during a penalty kick shootout during overtime of Friday’s showdown at Callaway Stadium.

Palmer had seen his team make three penalty kicks, and he was looking for that last block to seal the win for the Grangers.

Fans, students and parents lined up against the fence surrounding the field cheering loudly.

With a quick jump to his right side Palmer blocked the Tigers’ last effort, sealing a 2-1 victory for the Grangers.

“Most of those guys from Troup have been my friends for a while, and I have a lot of respect for them, but when it’s time to get the job done, it’ time to get the job done,” Palmer said.

The teams played to a 1-1 tie in regulation, and after two overtime periods passed, it came down to penalty kicks, with each team getting five kicks.

For LaGrange, Paul Hutton, Kevin Folsom and Everett Quintana made penalty kicks, while Jordan Vann made Troup’s lone penalty kick.

The game played out like almost every other rivalry game between the two teams had in the past, with both squads playing a hard fought, very physical game.

It was scoreless at the intermission.

That changed in the early part of the second half on a Granger throw-in when Gavin Wood snuck a ball by the Tigers goalie to put the team up 1-0.

The Tigers, true to their character, fought back.

With a little less than five minutes left to play in the game, Tiger team captain Sean Malloy broke away from the pack and scored, tying the game 1-1.

“We played hard out there,” said Malloy, “We gave it our all and left it all out there on the field, but just came up short. It makes me sick honestly, because I thought we had them this year.”

Neither team made much headway in overtime, forcing the game into deciding extra kicks.

“We played a great game,” Granger head coach Keita Placide said. “We played for 80 minutes. We had one little mishap, and Troup capitalized on it, and that’s what good teams do. Hat’s off to (Sean) Malloy. He’s playing really good out there. It’s a really good rivalry, as it always is every year. We look forward to it. They look forward to it, and we are happy with the outcome.”

Added Troup coach Mark McCloud: “It’s hard to put these feelings into words at this point. We thought we had the better team, but it was a classic game. When it gets down to penalty kicks its a crap shoot. Their keeper came up huge. I know it hurts for our seniors, but I am really proud of the way our guys played tonight.”

In the girls’ game, with the stands of Callaway Stadium filled, the Lady Grangers and Lady Tigers Tigers took to the pitch to settle their rivalry.

Added to the already tension filled affair, it was senior night for the Grangers which added a little more pressure to the game.

The pressure did not get to the Lady Grangers as they were able to beat the Lady Tigers in a hard-fought game 2-1.

“It was a big win for us today,” Lady Granger head coach Rusty Cook said. “We felt like we could have played a little better. It was a physical game, but we felt like we could have played a little better and it would have been a different game.”

The Lady Grangers drew first blood early in the game when junior Elissa Morman opened up the scoring. After a very physical first half the score stayed the same with the Lady Grangers up 1-0.

The lead wouldn’t stand too far into the second half as the lady tigers came out and attacked the Lady Granger side of the field. Four minutes in, Kristin Kemp found the ball in the middle of a crowded front goal and scored, knotting the game up at 1-1.

The pressure intensified in the game until the later part of the half when senior Anna Simmons kicked in what would become the game-winning goal for the Lady Grangers.

Lady Tigers head coach John Bernard said that even though the score did not end up in his team’s favor, he was pleased with the way that they played the game.

“That was honestly the best game we have played all season by far,” Bernard said. “We took it to them the entire game. When we went down by one early we defiantly weren’t giving up the ghost, we were defiantly going to play the entire game. Its a rivalry game, it’s always going to be close, and it’s always going to be a fight. I do hope that we can bring the energy that we had in this game into the playoffs