Heading into GHSA playoffs, 9 girls soccer teams tout +100 goal differential

Curtis Engsberg finds himself in a similar position to where he was three years ago.

The Marist girls soccer coach has led his squad to an unbeaten record and region championship. In 2023, the War Eagles entered the postseason with a 15-0-2 record before making their way to the GHSA 6A state title game, where they would fall to Roswell 2-0.

This season, Marist is 15-0 and set to host Central on Thursday night to begin its run in the 4A state playoffs.

“We’re trying to stay focused on the real prize because ultimately being undefeated in the regular season doesn’t really get put on any kind of historical records, right? You have to win,” Engsberg said. “A few of these seniors this year were freshmen on that team, and we went into the playoffs undefeated, were beating good teams pretty comfortably and then we slipped in the final against Roswell.

“They’ve got that in the back of their mind as well, knowing that that’s a really painful experience, and as seniors, that’s probably not the way you want to go out.”

Marist is entering the postseason with a goal differential of +100, meaning the War Eagles have outscored their opponents by 100 goals this year. They’ve scored 105 goals and only allowed five goals past their goalkeeper.

They’re one of nine girls soccer teams across the state that share that impressive feat in scoring at least 100 more goals than their opponents in the 2026 season, according to scores reported to MaxPreps. Those teams are:

• Holy Innocents’ — +114 (123 goals scored, 9 allowed)
• Providence Christian — +113 (123, 10)
• ACE Charter — +109 (121, 12)
• Stratford Academy — +107 (111, 4)
• Thomasville — +106 (112, 6)
• Wesleyan — +106 (120, 14)
• Central Fellowship — +101 (118, 17)
• Marist — +100 (105, 5)
• Ola— +100 (110, 10)

Not all of these teams are without loss, but all of them did enough to outscore their opponents in big ways. So the question is: What does it take to reach his rarefied air?

Turns out there are several different schools of thought.

Thomasville, which went 18-0 on the season, allowed just six goals and allowed more than one goal in just one game — a 4-3 win against Colquitt County.

Head coach Lucas Kimmel attributed much of the success to a foundational defense.

“A lot of those games, I don’t know if my goalie even touched the ball, so I think that has a lot to say about my defense as well,” Kimmel said. “(Teaching defense is) how I start each season as well. It starts all focused on the defensive aspect. I can be sure the formation is correct, and our positioning and how we pressure and recover each other throughout that back line as well.”

The Bulldogs had as many 10-0 shutouts as they had goals allowed, which backs up Kimmel’s point of the whole team buying into playing team defense.

Thomasville is the No. 1 overall seed in the Class A Division I playoffs this season. The No. 2 overall seed in that classification is ACE Charter, which shares the +100 achievement at +109. The Gryphons allowed twice as many goals as the War Eagles, but made up for it by scoring nine more goals.

It seems like those two are on a course to meet in the state title game, just based on their dominance on both ends.

“I think we’re prepared,” Kimmel said of the postseason. “We’ve been working toward this the last few games of the season, getting more focused on that since we secured the region. So those last few games of the season were all about getting ready for the playoffs.”

Thomasville is one of just two public school programs — along with Ola — that have the +100 point differential honor. Part of the one-sided scoring across the sport comes from a disparity between public and private schools.

In his more than 10 years as the Holy Innocents’ girls soccer coach, Clayton Schmitt has seen how private schools have an advantage when it comes to roster building. He’s also learned to schedule well to get his players good competition and improve his team’s seeding.

“The private school league uses the GHSA power rankings for playoff seeding,” Schmitt said. “We try to put together a schedule that allows us to compete with some of the top teams in other levels to maximize our strength of schedule. We want to challenge our players to help both develop them as well as prepare them for postseason success.”

The Golden Bears faced Oconee County and Riverwood, teams that went a combined 33-2 this season. They lost both games, but gained valuable experience against talented teams.

Holy Innocents’, which finished 12-4, is the No. 9 seed in the private classification.

While many of the teams that are hoping to make a run to a state title have plenty of veterans on their rosters, Ola is a youthful bunch. The Mustangs went 13-1 on the season and outscored their opponents 110-10.

With so much youth, coach Jordynne Godsey didn’t know what to expect for the 2026 season.

“I knew we were going to do well,” Godsey said. “I knew I had a lot of offensive players coming in who played at a high level, so I knew that way that side was going to be good. Defense has surprised me this season, but I didn’t really have a lot of expectations going into it because of the youngness of our team.”

The young Mustangs didn’t allow a goal until their fourth game, and their lone loss was an early-season overtime loss.

Whether these teams got to the postseason by relying on defense or simply punishing their opponents with an onslaught of scoring, they’re all 0-0 when the first round of the playoffs begins.