Cloudy with light rain early…then becoming clear overnight. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..
Cloudy with light rain early…then becoming clear overnight. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
Updated: July 13, 2024 @ 7:10 pm
The Dalton Academy boys soccer team scored 83 goals during its Region 7-A DI championship-winning season in 2024.
Sophomore midfielder Joe Gonzalez was directly involved in well over half of them.
Gonzalez piled up 33 goals and 19 assists — marking 52 goals that he helped make happen — on the season.
Gonzalez’s offense was a catalyst behind a Puma squad that ripped off a 12-game win streak and won a third straight region title.
Gonzalez’s play earned him the nod as the Region 7-A DI Player of the Year and the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association Class A DI All-State first team.
The sophomore’s play has also earned him the title of the 2024 Dalton Daily Citizen All-Area Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
The Class A DI program, which won a state title in its first season in 2022 and has won a region championship in each of its three years of play, toppled several bigger schools during a regular season in which the Pumas finished 14-2-1.
After a win over Class 4A Heritage to begin the season, Dalton Academy fell 4-1 to Cass, a Class 5A region champion, in the season’s second game.
After that loss, the Pumas locked in.
A 4-2 win over Murray County kicked off a 12-game win streak.
During the streak, the Pumas beat Christian Heritage — the defending Class A DII champion and eventual state semifinalist — 9-0. Gonzalez scored three goals and dished three more assists.
Dalton Academy knocked off another local defending champ — Class 3A’s Coahulla Creek — 3-2 with a comeback from down 2-0 in early March. Gonzalez scored two of the Puma goals as Dalton Academy trickled in a trio of goals in just 15 minutes to win.
The 12-game streak, which included seven shutouts, finally came to an end with a late March loss to Class 4A, Region 7 champion Southeast Whitfield in a 1-0 loss.
Dalton Academy responded in time to knock off Trion in overtime the next game and clinch a third straight region title.
After a hard-fought, 3-3 draw with Northwest Whitfield to close out the regular season, Dalton Academy entered the playoffs with home-field advantage but with a bad-luck draw.
Whitefield Academy came to Dalton as a fourth seed in the opening round, but it was the fourth seed in a battle-tested Region 6-A DI comprised of Atlanta-area teams.
Dalton Academy led 2-0 with just seven minutes to play, but disaster struck as Whitefield peppered in three late goals to steal the win and end a promising Puma season at 14-3-1.
Whitefield was the fourth seed in a region that would eventually put all four of its playoff teams into the state Final Four. Atlanta International won 4-1 over Whitefield Academy in the state semifinals before winning the state title.
Gonzalez averaged 1.8 goals per game and just over an assist per game in the 18-game season for the Pumas. Gonzalez piled up several multi-goal games and hat tricks and had a season-high of four goals in a 10-0 win over Chattooga.
CO-PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
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