STARKVILLE — Sydney Passons has seen enough movies to wonder if time really slows down in real life like it does on the big screen.
Last Monday, the Starkville Academy senior forward experienced just how quickly events appear to come to a stand still. Passons doesn’t remember the things her teammates yelled to her after she collected a loose ball in overtime because she didn’t hear them. That’s OK, though. She can go to her cell phone and scroll as quickly as she wants through a series of photographs that brings it all back to life. The pictures show Passons possessing the ball, racing past a Hartfield Academy defender, and reacting to scoring what proved to be the game-winning goal in a 3-2 victory in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Division III State championship.
A week later, it all seems surreal, even after she looks at the photographs on her phone again.
“It has been crazy,” Passons said. “I don’t know if it has really sunk in that we actually won the state championship. You think, ‘Wow, we won that game.’ ”
Passons has two goals, while classmate Shelton Spivey had the equalizer late in regulation to help send Starkville Academy (13-1-1) to its first state title in program history.
For its accomplishment, the Starkville Academy girls soccer team is The Dispatch’s Prep Player of the Week.
Passons admitted the Lady Volunteers started to feel like they might lose with about eight minutes remaining. Spivey’s goal changed that and sent the match into overtime. She said it was “nerve-wracking” in the extra sessions to think the next goal might have been the one to decide a state champion. She had no idea she would be in position to score that goal.
All it took was a loose ball to set Passons in motion. She said she realized she could beat the defender who was with her. After she used her speed to create space, Passons looked up to find the goalkeeper, who was coming off her line to challenge her. Passons said she has been in that situation plenty of times in her career and that she has shot the ball right at the goalkeeper. This time, she vowed she wasn’t going to let a sliding goalkeeper deny her, so she picked out a spot and timed her shot just right.
“It was unreal, almost, the feeling after that,” Passons said. “It was the same thing going through my head, ‘Don’t kick it to the middle, kick it to the right.’ It was over and over again.”
Passons said she got “chill bumps” and everything went quiet as soon she gained possession of the ball on the game-winning sequence.
The teams had to wait nearly 10 minutes after trainers had to care for the Hartfield Academy goalkeeper. Once the match resumed, the Lady Volunteers dropped their midfield back to the 30-yard line and didn’t allow the ball past midfield. Even though only 2 minutes, 32 seconds remained, Passons said the time seemed to go by so slowly.
“We held them basically in one spot the whole time,” Passons said.
Led by Passons, Spivey, Hannah Cuevas, Savannah Hubbard, Bonner Hughes, Lauren Lyle, and Hays Miller, Starkville Academy made history and helped put an exclamation point on Matt Sykes’ first season as a head coach. The former Heritage Academy and East Central Community College goalkeeper didn’t have much down time after the state championship. On Monday, Sykes and the Starkville Academy boys soccer team started practice.
But Sykes said he has been able to savor the fact that the girls team used a dominating defense and an unselfish attack to realize their goal.
“The way we won it, I still have to look at pictures of it to prove it is real,” Sykes said. “It has been all smiles You can tell there is a different mind-set in the school. It is really unexplainable unless you are in the middle of it.”
Passons said it was equally satisfying to think about all of the training and matches that led up to the title game. Looking at a space that had been cleared in the trophy case in the school’s lobby, Passons said she always will remember the torrent of emotions she and her teammates felt after the victory. After time appeared to slow down as she raced in to score the game-winning goal, those feelings, tears, and hugs all happened in a flood.
“It is indescribable,” Passons said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.