MACON – St. Pius freshman goalkeeper Emory Wegener shut out a Marist team that hadn’t lost in two years and came up with three saves in the penalty-kick shootout to lead the Golden Lions to the Class AAAA girls soccer championship Thursday at Mercer University’s Five Star Stadium.
St. Pius (19-2) won 2-1 in the shootout after the teams were held scoreless through regulation and two overtime periods. St. Pius got successful conversions from Nicole Rodriguez and Rachel Heard, and Wegener made saves on three of Marist’s first four attempts. Goalkeeper Carlin Zaprowski took Marist’s final kick but hit the right post, securing the title for St. Pius.
“She was a huge addition to the team this year,” St. Pius coach Sara Geiger said of Wegener. “She came up with some big saves in the game and in the PKs, and as a freshman there’s a lot of potential there. I can’t wait to keep having her in the net for three more years.”
The game was a matchup of Region 6-AAAA and DeKalb County rivals that had each won two consecutive state titles (St. Pius played the past two seasons in Class AAA before moving up during reclassification). Both teams have won nine state championships.
“We lost to them during the season [2-1 on March 20], and that never really left us,” Geiger said. “We knew that if we could get to the final game, that would probably be our matchup and it was time to go right back at them. We haven’t played them in a couple of years because we’ve been in different classifications, so this was my first time beating Marist in a while and it felt really good.”
