April 29, 2008
History was made at the Arab Soccer Complex Tuesday evening.  For the first time, two Arab High School soccer teams were playing in the sub-state playoffs simultaneously. For the first time both teams won and will advance to the 2nd round.

Lady Knights
This was the fourth time that the Arab Lady Knights have met the Southside Lady Panthers in the 1st round state playoffs and despite a strong game by the Lady Panthers, the Lady Knights were victorious.  Arab scored first and held the lead 1-0 at the end of the first period.  The Lady Panthers would tie the game about midway through the second period but the Lady Knights scored the go ahead point with about two minutes left in the game and held on for the win.    

AHS Junior, Alycia Helmes scored the first goal for the lady Knights.  Southside's goal came on a controversial play that caused AHS goalkeeper Jessica Black to be injured and miss a short portion of the game.  Black was filling in for Jessica Baker, who was hurt in the regular season game against Southside. Allison Smith replaced Black as goalkeeper while she was attended to.  Giselle Escalante scored the final goal to give Arab the victory.

Seven of the Lady Knights are seniors, and for them it was their last game on their home field.  The seniors are Jessica Black, Riley Craft, Reianna Dickerson, Devon Fall, Jessica Knapp, Megan Vaughn and Emma Zimomra.

The Lady Knights will play Athens, at Athens, on Saturday, May 3rd.  Game time will be 4 p.m.  The Lady Knights will carry a 13-3-4 record to Athens on Saturday.

Lady Knights Coach, Jason Guger, said Athens is a team that they have not faced this year and consequently know little about their strengths or style of play.  However, Athens has played many of the same teams that Arab has played during the season and Guger said that based on the scoring in those games he believes they will be pretty evenly matched.

Knights
For the Arab Varsity Boys, it was the first time to play in the sub-state playoffs and they faced a tenacious Walker High School team.  Tough defensive play by both teams held the total scoring to one goal by Arab and none for Walker.  Arab's score came very late in the game.  Jeremy Atchley scored the single goal to give Arab the lead and the win.

This is the second time the Knights have faced Walker High School this year.  In March the Knights won by a score of 3-0.

The Knights are 15-5-4 going into the next round on Saturday.  They will face Brewer High School at Brewer.  Game time will be 6 p.m.

Melissa Black contributed to this story.

Arab Today congratulates both teams on their seasons and for making the second round playoffs.