Dalton (Ga.) boys soccer continues to impress

Dalton (Ga.) and Pace Academy (Ga.) squared off Feb. 11, in a contest pitting a pair of perennial state title challengers. The following are the standouts from that match: <strong>Yahir Paez, Dalton: </strong>The man of the match has dribbling skills with the ball at his feet and in tight space, distributes the ball diagonally to the wings with precision, first touch control with "give and go" passing, and is "ambipedal" scoring the first goal in the first half from outside the box with his right foot and then scored the third goal of the match again from outside the box with his left foot. He also showed a good recovery pace getting back on defense and breaking up the play of the opponents. He plays mature, unrattled. <img class="size-medium wp-image-39050 alignright" src="https://prepsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/02/Dalton-Catamonts-warm-up-scaled-crop-1823x1197-1644685896-300x197.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="197" /> <strong>Fernando Guerrero, Dalton: </strong>Guerrero was able to put a lot of pressure on the Pace Academy back four and multiple times throughout play in the right channel. His speed and his use of getting open for his teammates by running into open space made him difficult to contain. He also teamed up with Paez in some "tiki-taka" passing a few times in the second half that was a treat to watch. Fernando took the majority of the set-pieces showing the quality in his passing game. Other mentions for Dalton are goalkeeper <strong>Isaac Meza</strong>, fearless play, positioned well, had a moment during play with back-to-back saves in a scramble in the box and was able to play big; and <strong>Ezekiel Ortiz</strong>, during play in the second half seemed unstoppable on the left wing making a few runs up the channel, around and through the defenders finishing with quality crosses into the box creating chances for teammates. <strong>Terry Noh</strong>,<strong> Pace Academy</strong>: Noh had the ball on the left side and through the middle putting pressure on the Dalton defense. He has good 1 v 1 skills and was able to created separation from the defender and resulted in crosses into the box for teammate scoring opportunities. He scored the only goal for Pace Academy off of a corner kick playing strong in the air using his height and positioning advantage. <a href="https://prepsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/02/Pace-Academy-scaled-crop-1823x1197-1644686131.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-39052 alignright" src="https://prepsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/02/Pace-Academy-scaled-crop-1823x1197-1644686131-300x197.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="197" /></a> <strong>Easton KinCaid, Pace Academy: </strong>He was probably the tallest man on the pitch this night for either team and because of this, he was the target for the set pieces for Pace Academy. He played as one of the center backs showing a strong left foot for clearing the ball when needed. Easton got control of the long balls coming into their half and distributed the ball to wide teammates. Other mentions from Pace Academy: the other center back, <strong>Christian Gomez-Mendoza</strong> seemed to enjoy contesting for the ball in his penalty box, both in the air and on the ground. Despite being on the short end of the final 3-1 score, the Pace Academy center back duo played well and contributed to the close score with their defensive skills that repelled the Catamount attack. And as a note for the future, two of the three players mentioned for the Pace Academy (Atlanta) are freshmen.