Shane Thomas | The Valdosta Daily TimesBrunswick's Jamari Young (9) advances the ball past Valdosta's Noah Vaughn (14) during the second half of a GHSA first-round playoff match on Wednesday at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

VALDOSTA –– For the second time in school history, the Valdosta Wildcats boys soccer team advanced to the Sweet Sixteen with a commanding 3-0 win against the Brunswick Pirates on Wednesday night.

The Wildcats looked to be aggressive all night as they put pressure on the Pirates’ defense, setting up a high number of shots on goal, especially in the second half as they looked to pad their lead.

“With the pressure that we applied, we knew that it could possibly create some easy goals so that’s what we worked on,” Valdosta boys coach Sandy Turner said. “Applying the pressure so that we could get those easy goals and move the ball into the space…working together as a team.”

Carter Sharon scored two goals for the Wildcats, the second of which came with 32:11 left in the second half. Sharon got the ball out front to the left of the post before firing just past the Pirates’ goalkeeper to score. A minute and 22 seconds later, the Wildcats found the net again as Rolin Henriquez took the ball on the left side then rifled it in to make it a 3-0 lead with 31:33 remaining.

In addition to Henriquez’s goal, Turner praised the sophomore for holding off the Brunswick wing long enough for Sharon to give the Wildcats a two-goal lead early in the second half. Turner also acknowledged that earning a draw against the Pirates on Feb. 9

“Those two goals (back-to-back) were really big,” Turner said. “Also, we give Rolin a lot of credit because he held that other winger that wanted to come in and stop Carter, but with Carter on the move, he was maybe expecting him to pass it. He didn’t and he took it all the way in and made a great play. I think giving our team a two-goal lead––even the first goal––it gave us an opportunity to really see what we were doing and to feel the game out.

“So, those two goals––any time you can get a goal in soccer, it’s really big for the kids’ confidence because we had played this team before and ending up tying. Just being up one, it was still kind of uneasy but we had mellowed out. When we went up two, it was big for their confidence and it was like playing with house money.”

With the loss, the Pirates finish their season with a 7-9-3 record. The Wildcats improved to 15-2-1 and have won 14 of their last 16 matches.

Sharon’s first goal came with a little more than 9 minutes left in the first half put the Wildcats ahead 1-0. With the Wildcats moving on to the second round, Turner wants to see his team stay aggressive as they play on.

“(Keeping the pressure on) has been really big,” Turner said. “I reminded the guys before they came out that (making the playoffs) has only been done six times in school history and this is only the second time that we’ve advanced past the first round into the second round. So, these guys are setting goals, they’re achieving their goals and the standard is getting higher and higher as we move on in the playoffs. Even though we won, we still have to keep them humble. If you want to move on, it’s not about an individual. It’s all about the team.”