DAPHNE, Alabama — The Daphne Lady Trojans got a pair of goals from Rianna Gurvitz while the Spanish Fort Lady Toros got one from Rebekah Diring off a Summer Stout assist as Daphne took a 2-1 home win over visiting Spanish Fort Tuesday night at Jubilee Stadium.

The teams had not met on the pitch for a few years despite both making the state final four in their respective divisions the last three years. The Lady Toros are the defending 5A state champs and were state runners up in 2010.

Both head coaches were happy to renew the inter-classification rivalry.

“This is great for us. Great for them. Great for all the kids,” said Daphne coach Rick Andrew. “All these kids know each other and for us to get to test ourselves against a defending state champion is a real good opportunity for us. You know we were rooting for each other last year at state, but not tonight.

“Tonight was just a good old hard fought battle with these girls. You’re playing the state champions from last year and there’s a lot on the line, pride, bragging rights and such and really, a chance to get better. And they are very physical and skilled. We both pushed each other and in the end we got one more than they did, but the fans, the soccer fans saw two really good girls teams go at it tonight.”

Spanish Fort head coach Barclay Kercher would have preferred to see the score reversed but was not unhappy with her team’s effort.

“This is what my team needed to see,” she said. “I think playing a team like Daphne at this point in the season helps us see where we are and where we need to go. They are a good team, very fast up top. I think our defense was fatigued at the end. But that’s what we need. A 2-1 loss against Daphne — a great team, any team for that matter — is not what we want, of course. But do I feel like we missed some opportunities? Yes we did.

“You know, we like to be the team that goes up early and stays up. Still I’m proud of how we kept fighting and didn’t quit. We’re getting into that part of the season now when we really have to fight for our positions and I think we helped ourselves even if we didn’t pull out the win.”

Daphne improved to 7-4-1 overall and will face region rival McGill-Toolen Catholic today at 5:30 p.m. Spanish Fort took a loss for only the second time and takes a 5-2-1 record into the McGill-Toolen Tournament this weekend. The Toros are 3-0 in region play.

Andrew said his freshman keeper Cierra Harris did a great job against the Toros quality attack.

“She’s never played the game before, but she’s learning. Has a lot of natural talent for it. But she needs more experience and time will tell how good she can be. This was a good match for her to see what’s coming.”