CALEDONIA — Thomas Blake knew expectations were high when he took over the Caledonia soccer programs this year.
Soon after he got the job, he met with the Confederates girls team for the first time, telling his players they should expect to compete for the MHSAA Class 4A north half championship.
After Blake spoke, Caledonia’s four seniors came up to him with a message.
“They said, ‘That’s not good enough. We don’t want the north half. We want all of it,'” Blake recalled. “When they told me that, I had a good feeling that this was gonna be a special season.”
It was for the Confederates, who beat Corinth on the road in the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday. Caledonia finished three wins away from the title its seniors wanted, but Friday morning — one day before a home matchup with Newton County in the north half semifinal — two of those seniors got to see their college dreams realized.
Forward Claire Benson and defensive midfielder Clara Allen, who have played together since they were 4 years old, signed their letters of intent to play soccer at Meridian Community College, are not ready to part ways just yet.
“Me and Clara have a lot of chemistry on the field, but we get along really well off the field, too,” Benson said.
Their plans of playing together for the Eagles only came to fruition in the last few weeks. On Jan. 13, Meridian coach Mike Smith took notice of Benson at the ‘Feds’ game against Pontotoc, where he had come to watch Allen.
“He asked me, ‘Is No. 2 a senior?'” Allen said. “I was like, ‘Yes, sir, she is.'”
Allen gave Smith Benson’s name and confirmed that her teammate wanted to play in college, something she wasn’t sure about early in the year.
“At the beginning of the season, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I knew that I loved to play soccer,” Benson said. “As I got into my senior year and I started playing, I realized that I didn’t really want to stop playing.”
Smith soon gave Benson a way to continue her career. Just a couple days after Allen settled on Meridian in January, Benson decided to join her longtime friend — something neither of them really expected.
“We never planned on going to the same college,” Allen said. “It was never an idea that we had or even thought may be possible. Now that it’s here, it feels so right, and it feels so good, and I’m honestly so excited.”
With Caledonia’s playoff run now over, the pair of teammates will take their chemistry to the next level.
“Me and Claire have always just worked really well together,” Allen said. “We know how each other play, and so we can read each other really well. On the field, we’re kind of just a package deal: We come together. I’m really glad that we get to continue to play at the next level together.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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