A.C. Flora girls soccer upsets defending state champion Dreher

After a scoreless first half between Region IV rivals Dreher and A.C. Flora, Emily Geiger finally found a moment 12 minutes into the second half.

The Falcons’ freshman forward took an inbound pass about 20 yards from the goal and beat Dreher junior keeper Gracie Barrineau to give A.C. Flora a 1-0 upset of the defending Class 3A state champions Friday night at Memorial Stadium

“I knew we had this one in,” Geiger said she thought approaching the shot. “I couldn’t do it without my team. We put everything we had into it, took it straight into the goal and scored.”

A.C. Flora (9-11) will travel to Chapin on Monday to play for the upper state championship. Chapin defeated Eastside 1-0 Friday.

Dreher (20-2) had beaten the Falcons twice in the regular season, 5-1 and 3-2 in penalty kicks. The third time was not the charm.

“Dreher is a very good team. They’ve had a great season,” Falcons coach Jamie McLeod said. “We had the benefit of seeing them twice in the regular season, and we came in with a lot of confidence.”

The Blue Devils were without South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year Kasey Parker for most of the first half. Parker entered the game seven minutes before halftime and was able to take two shots on goal.

Parker, who had suffered a right foot injury and had missed six games in the regular season, re-entered after Geiger’s goal, but her play was limited. She went to the bench with 11 minutes remaining and played in the final five minutes of the game.

With or without Parker, Dreher coach David Kleinfelder said the Blue Devils didn’t play their best.

“I think we could have played a little bit smarter,” Kleinfelder said. “(The Falcons) came out in a defensive mode and did a good job of closing us down and limiting the opportunities we had. They worked their tails off. I figured they would get something off a counterattack, and that’s what they did.”

Dreher wasn’t able to get past Flora defenders that clogged the pathways to the goal. The Blue Devils outshot A.C. Flora 15-7 in the first half, but each attempt was blocked by a defender or goalkeeper Kara McMullen.

“We all wanted this,” said McMullen, who had nine saves. “We’ve been working on (defense) a lot in practice. We all put our best effort forward today and it was amazing.”

The second half featured more jockeying for position than shots on goal – until Geiger’s goal.

“We knew that we weren’t going to get very many opportunites,” McLeod said. “When we did ,we had to take advantage of them, and she took advantage of one.”

Geiger’s goal came as a bit of a shock to the Blue Devils, Kleinfelder said, adding he was proud of the way his team responded.

“This team’s had a really good year, had a really good two years,” Kleinfelder said. “They haven’t been behind a whole lot, but they kept in it. We had some good opportunities, but we just couldn’t put them in the back of the net.”

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 11:27 PM.