Islands captures first ever state title in program and school history

Islands defeats East Hall to claim first ever GHSA state title

After reaching the Georgia High School Association soccer state championship for the first time in program history, the Islands Sharks completed the 2025-2026 season capturing the Class 3A title, marking not only the first state championship in program history, but the first state title in school history for any program.

"The emotions are so high right now, I'm so excited for the boys," Islands head coach, Justin Brantley said following the Sharks 6-0 win over the East Hall Vikings Tuesday night to claim the 3A championship. "They put in the work all season long," Brantley continued said of the Sharks who finished the year with a 22-2 record, which he described as "a fantastic season," and praising his players for "doing everything we've asked them,".

The Sharks opened the match looking to set the tone early as they took a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Andrew McLaughlin goal six minutes and 36 seconds into the match, leading to a dominate first half as they would put the ball into the back of the net just over 10 minutes later thanks to a JJ Stein goal, later followed by back to back goals from Tao Harlan, which would give Islands a 4-0 by halftime

As the match resumed in the second half, despite early efforts to score by East Hall, the Sharks defense held strong and it would be Island eventually adding to mor goals by Dylan Coggins and Sid Johnson, to give them the 6-0 lead and eventual win by that same score.

"Make sure you see the first 10 and then it's the next 10," Brantley said of the Sharks mindset coming out for the second half with the understanding the Vikings would be aggressive and look to score early in the half. "It's always just compounding, make sure that we see that first 10 out, now that we have, let's put another goal in if we can and that's what we did and I'm so proud of the boys. Fantastic," Brantley said.