Wilkes Stubbs ducked as the goal kick sailed by his head.
The Starkville Academy senior was ready for Heritage Academy goalkeeper Todd Sharp — whom Stubbs considers a friend despite their disparate uniforms — to send the soccer ball in his direction. Sharp didn’t disappoint.
“Oh, yeah,” Stubbs said with a laugh as the ball whizzed by his ear and soared down the field. “That would have hurt.”
Just a few minutes later, Stubbs got a chance at a little bit of redemption. He sprinted past a Heritage Academy defender and beat Sharp one on one to for the first goal of Thursday’s rivalry match in Columbus. The goal stood as the Volunteers earned a 1-0 victory, beating the Patriots for the second time this season.
“Just to seal off the win and the sweep against our rival is pretty nice,” Stubbs said.
Not only that, but the Volunteers also clinched one of the top two spots in the MAIS Class 4A, District II East division. Once again, Starkville Academy is headed to the playoffs, though it still has two big matches remaining against Lamar School that could determine whether the Vols get the No. 1 or No. 2 seed.
“I’m glad we could just beat (Heritage Academy), and hopefully we can clinch the first-place spot in the district and then go on and win state,” Stubbs said.
The Patriots are hoping for the same. They haven’t gotten to play either match against Lamar yet, either, and they could oust the Raiders from postseason competition by either winning twice or splitting the two matches but scoring more goals.
And the way Heritage Academy played Thursday — improving significantly from a 3-0 road loss to Starkville Academy on Jan. 4 — the Patriots feel optimistic about their chances.
“I told them I was really proud of their intensity level all the way through to the end,” head coach Tom Velek said. “I think if we play with that intensity, we’ll win a lot of games going forward.”
“I think if we can do what we did there against Lamar, we can have a pretty good chance,” captain Owen Riley added.
Velek and Riley both praised the performance of the Patriots’ back line in stopping a dangerous Starkville Academy attack, something they’d worked on since the teams’ first meeting.
“We did a really good job,” Riley said. “We just got unlucky one time, and there’s just nothing you can do about it.”
But it was more than luck for a Volunteers team that rebounded from its first two losses of the season at the Jackson Prep Tournament over the weekend to post another clean sheet Thursday.
“Any time you go away from home — especially to a hostile environment the way Heritage is — we know it’s going to be tough,” Starkville Academy coach John Morgan said. “They made sure it was. They definitely did some things that frustrated us and slowed us down a little bit, but at the end of the day, getting the win is big.”
Morgan credited the ability of players like Stubbs to step up with senior Brody Pierce on the sidelines Thursday.
“It’s big, especially with a game like this where that goal makes all the difference,” Morgan said. “We had to move some pieces and hope some guys stepped up, and they did. It was good to have that depth.”
For Heritage Academy, too, depth was an issue. With senior Rocky Marcel out for the season after suffering an injury against East Rankin Academy, the Patriots’ offense was limited Thursday. The team kept Sharp, its premier scoring threat, in goal for most of the match in order to keep things close, but the Pats could never equalize after Stubbs scored in the 17th minute.
“I think we played the hardest we’ve played all year,” Heritage Academy senior Liam Sanders said. “Unfortunately, we lost. We gave it our all.”
So did Starkville Academy, and though Morgan pointed out his team made more mistakes on defense than is typical, the Vols’ effort Thursday was sufficient.
“At the end of the day, we did enough to survive,” Morgan said.
Other scores
Prep Girls Basketball
Pillow Academy 64, Starkville Academy 36
GREENWOOD — The Starkville Academy girls basketball team lost Thursday’s road game at Pillow Academy, 64-36.
Lillee Alpe scored 11 points for the Volunteers.
Starkville Academy will play in next week’s district tournament at Winston Academy.
Prep Archery
Starkville 3,140, West Point 2,868
STARKVILLE — The Starkville High School archery team defeated West Point 3,140 to 2,868 in Thursday’s match in Starkville.
For West Point, Xzavier Fair was the top shooter with 267 points out of a possible 300. Lidia Portera was the Green Wave’s top female shooter with 259 points, and seventh-grader Cloe Cox scored 219.
Noah Essary, Corbin Hendricks and Tyrese Johnson were all key shooters for West Point.
The Green Wave will host Starkville Academy on Monday.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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