Last year Mauldin was the surprise team of the Region 2 High School season. They played the three matches before the final away from home. The journey to Lexington was a long trip for a school night, the game against Hanna went into overtime. All the games were close and exhausting. The final, although closely contested belonged to Wando as Mauldin showed fatigue in the second half resulting from an exhausting end to the season.
This year Mauldin Girls have shown great determination and confidence in all their Upper State games. They have played all but one game at home and although last Mondays game against Fort Mill went into overtime, it was territorially one sided and the bombardment of the Fort Mill goal continued unabated for a large portion of the game. The Fort Mill girls looked exhausted before the overtime period commenced and did not get a shot on goal after the first half time. Mauldin’s passing game penetrated their defense with relative ease as far as the packed penalty area.
As both Wando and Mauldin play physical but fair soccer, I do not think the refereeing will influence the outcome and on this basis, I forecast a Mauldin 2-0 victory.
