STARKVILLE — New Hope soccer traveled to Starkville on Thursday for a local non-district clash, with the Jacket girls and boys coming away with victories over the Trojans.
The Jacket girls won 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Olivia Anderson, breaking the deadlock with just a couple of minutes left in the game. It was a balanced performance by the Trojans, but the goals just didn’t come for them.
“I was proud of the girls overall tonight,” New Hope head coach Andrew Olsen said after the game. “They showed great effort, the energy was there and I thought we had some good opportunities but we just couldn’t put it in the back of the net, and then they got one at the end. It’s nothing to hang our heads about.”
The Jacket boys won their match as well, controlling the tempo in a 4-0 victory with goals from Braelin O’Briant, Silas Walker and Alejandro Camarena.
“Always good to get a win,” Jacket boys head coach Evinn Watson said. “We’re a little beat up right now, we caught some early injuries, but we’re fortunate we’ve got some ninth graders. Braelin scored an early goal in the first three minutes, he’s been great for us and we’ve got other ninth graders who have stepped up in positions where we have injuries and it’s really all you can ask.”
O’Briant’s goal came after just two minutes of play, setting the tone for a game the Jackets would dominate as well as the young forward’s standout play. Even as an eighth grader, he is showing the skill and awareness to be a varsity starter, and he’s playing alongside several younger players who have made an early impression this season.
“We noticed him last year. We pulled him up, he’s actually an eighth grader so we bus him over to the high school in his last period at Armstrong. We noticed he had a little bit more of an edge so we wanted to get him on varsity as soon as possible. Unfortunate with the injuries, but he’s stepped up and scored two goals in two games.”
Camarena finished the game off early in the second half with a pair of goals created by chaos. The Jackets looked to cross the ball in toward the goal and collapse in on the defense with their wide forwards, and those moments of disorder set up the sophomore winger to capitalize.
“Alejandro has done great, he’s stepped up big for us this year and earned a starting spot,” Watson said. “Our wingers have been very good for us this year, we’re trying to be direct and go through the center of the field, that’s one thing they need to do is make those diagonal runs in when the ball can be played or when we get a shot on goal they need to be crashing in to try and get the ball in the back of the net.”
The Trojans have had their fair share of injury problems as well in the varsity team, and the young group gained plenty of experience defending against the Jacket forwards. It was a difficult loss to take, but it was an experience Olsen, who also coaches the boys’ team, hopes will pay off down the line.
“You never want injuries but when that happens, I think we cycled through nine or ten freshmen, and it’s good quality game experience,” Olsen said. “You get to see what everyone has come late in December when we get some older guys back from injury, but by then they’ve seen the pace of the game and what they need to do. We’ll watch the film, correct, get back at it, and move on.”
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