DAWSONVILLE — Taking the field on St. Patrick’s Day, North Forsyth’s boys were just plain unlucky.

Junior forward Mauricio Escobar found the back of the net twice in the first 20 minutes, lifting Dawson County to a quick advantage that the visiting Raiders couldn’t overcome, as the Tigers earned a 3-1 win.

North coach Jack Maynard felt his team got the better of the action in every respect but the scoreboard.

“I felt like we dominated the game. We just made two mistakes early on and we couldn’t get back in the game. We had plenty of chances to score, plenty of shots on goal, but their goalkeeper [Sam Edwards] played well and we made mistakes, and that’s the difference between the two teams in the end,” Maynard said.

After Escobar’s second goal came on a header with 22:43 left until the break, North (3-5) spent the rest of the first half trying to catch up.

The Raiders finally broke through with 1:52 left in the period, as Jackson Reynolds scored on a free kick and sent the game to intermission at 2-1.

“I was very confident that we were going to win the game with our play toward the end of the first half,” Maynard said.

“We had plenty of shots on goal, we dominated the game, they didn’t have any chances, but again we came out second half and we made a mistake at the back and they punished us for it. After that, they put everyone behind the ball and we couldn’t get another goal.”

That punishment came in the form of a Jose Miranda goal, who missed a first chance shot, but caught the carom off keeper Barrett Myers’ hands and knocked back the ricochet less than 2 minutes into the second half.

At the other end, Maynard credited his team for good play building up to offensive chances, but said the breakdowns seemed to come on the final pass of most of the Raider sequences.

He noted the team was coming off its second game in two days, having faced national No. 1 Collins Hill in Suwanee Tuesday, and was dealing with injury problems.

“But hey, those are excuses, so we look forward to playing South [Forsyth],” the coach added.

“We’ve got practice tomorrow, so hopefully we can get a little better and beat South on Friday.”

The Raiders and War Eagles get started at 7 p.m. tonight in Coal Mountain.