CALEDONIA — A new year has brought a new start and a new attitude to the New Hope High School girls soccer team.
Morgan Franks, Farris Bradley, and Effie Morrison scored goals Friday night to lead a reinvigorated New Hope to a 3-0 victory against Caledonia in a non-district matchup.
Sarah Hern and Bradley had assists, and Mary Margaret Swain had two saves, including a stop on a penalty kick in the second half, to help New Hope (9-2-3) win its second game of 2012.
The New Hope and Caledonia boys played to a 1-1 tie in the nightcap.
Coming off a 3-0 district victory against Neshoba Central on Tuesday, coach Mary Nagy saw her team deliver another crisp, cohesive effort. The performances have come after an uneven start to the season in which the Lady Trojans never could realize the potential they showed last season in making a run into the second round of the Class 5A playoffs.
“The girls learned to have fun again,” Nagy said. “Before we left for the holidays, I told them when we come back in January it is a whole new season. It doesn’t matter what happened between November and December. In January, district play starts and that is the part of the season we have worked for.”
Nagy said New Hope had to shuffle personnel after losing a key player at the end of 2011. She said the players have accepted the challenge of stepping into new roles and picking up the slack.
What remains, Nagy said, is a 17-player squad that doesn’t lose a step when she goes to the bench.
Nagy credited assistant coach Will Taylor for helping to organize a series of activities and drills in practice that made things fun and helped the players work on areas of their game, like juggling, shooting, taking long kicks, speed dribbling, and others. She said the players received gold, silver, and bronze medals for each drill and for an overall winner.
There also is a sense of calm on the field through position changes as players showcase their versatility moving from defense to midfield to forward or back to their original position.
Nagy credits the players for responding like they have. She told them she took responsibility for the situation the team was in last year. She hopes the fresh start will help the team come together stronger and tighter than ever.
“From the beginning, I have told them how good they are,” Nagy said. “We beat Neshoba 3-0 on Tuesday and we walked off the field and I went, ‘That is who I knew you were in November, and for whatever reason we didn’t get it, but it took us this long where we need to be.’ The communication on the field is astounding. The passing of the ball is just unreal.”
New Hope took a 1-0 lead in the first half off a nice lead pass from Bradley. The eighth-grader, who filled in at forward when Morrison was hurt earlier in the season, pushed the ball from the middle to the left, where Franks ran past a defender and gained control of the ball. She didn’t get a great shot off, but her roller back to the far post caught Freeman out of position.
New Hope extended the lead to 2-0 later in the half after Freeman stopped an initial shot by Kayla Smith. Unfortunately, she was unable to control the rebound and Bradley tucked it inside the post.
“Farris Bradley grew up on the field today,” Nagy said. “She is an eighth-grader and she has some of the best touch on this field. She just doesn’t have that body. We have told her, ‘You have to be physical,’ and in the past three games she has grown.”
Caledonia coach Jason Forrester was pleased how his team responded in the second half after a slow start. Swain dove to her left to deny Darby Williams on a penalty kick early in the second half with New Hope leading 2-0.
Later in the half, Hern delivered a perfect cross from the left wing into the center of the box that Morrison headed home for a picture-perfect goal that capped the evening.
“It is like we took 70 minutes to wake up and decide we wanted to play a little bit,” said Forrester, whose team slipped to 10-6-1. “At times, we played as hard as we needed to, but we just didn’t get over the hump to keep it going. New Hope played a good game. They really did. The 50-50 balls, they won more of them. In the second half we found our stride and started playing a little bit better and started pressuring better. We settled down and started to play our game.”
The pass was just one of several timely, well-placed connections that allowed the Lady Trojans to get behind the defense into scoring territory. Caledonia goalkeeper Sarah Freeman (10 saves) did her best to keep her team in the game, making two saves at the start of the second half, including one on a Sam Vogel penalty kick.
“Sarah did good back there,” said Forrester, who gave his team two weeks off after its last game Dec. 16 before returning to have four days of practice. “My defense, which has been one of my strongest suits this year, just made some mistakes they don’t normally make. You cannot make those mistakes against a team like New Hope because they’re going to take advantage.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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