Undefeated Harrison rallies past Campbell, into state title game

KENNESAW — Harrison will return to the state championship game for the first time in 15 years after a dramatic, come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Campbell on Friday in the Class AAAAAAA semifinal at Cobleigh Stadium.

The Hoyas (22-0) erased a 2-0 deficit in the second half with three goals to win and advance to an all-Cobb County matchup with Pebblebrook next Friday at McEachern’s Walter Cantrell Stadium.

Harrison last played for the title in 2007, when it beat Chattahoochee 1-0 to claim the Class AAAAA title.

“It was a long time ago,” said Harrison coach Jonathan Gross, who is in his 16th year at the Hoyas’ helm. “Back then, I was young and arrogant, and I thought it was going to be routine. But soccer is so tough in Georgia and to get back to the state championship after so long — it says a ton about these players and how hard they worked and everything they’ve put into it.”

Nick Perla scored the first two goals and Reeves Buecker added the game-winning score for Harrison.

Dzenan Cerimagic scored both goals for Campbell (16-4-2).

It was Campbell in control in the first half as the Spartans got a number of shots on goal, all of them by Cerimagic.

The junior standout finally got the ball into the goal with 4:07 remaining in the first half as he made a spin move on a Harrison defender before scoring to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead that they carried into halftime.

Campbell appeared to continue its momentum into the second half as Cerimagic scored his second goal with 29:00 left in the game to increase the Spartans’ advantage to 2-0.

Harrison, hoeever, got a break when Perla was fouled inside the box and score on a penalty kick to cut Campbell’s lead to 2-1 with 15:30 to go in the contest .

Perla struck again 3 minutes later as he scored at the 12:27 mark of the second half to tie the game at 2-all.

It was only about another 3 minutes that passed when Buecker scored with 9:22 remaining in the contest to provide the game-winner for Harrison.

“We told them that we played 21 games this year and we’ve never been shut out all year,” Gross said, “so we knew that goals were going to come as long as we played well and stayed composed. Credit to Campbell, they were a great team. They scored two good goals on us, so we knew it was going to be tough, but once we got that one goal, we felt really good about what we could do.”