STARKVILLE – As the midday heat turned up its fury just a notch, the boys soccer team of the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science found itself sweating both the rising temperature and the relentless pressure from St. Andrews Episcopal in Friday’s MHSAA Class I playoff contest.
The visiting Saints swarmed to the ball early on and hammered home a goal for a 1-0 lead they took to the second half, where they piled on two more to hand the Blue Wave a season-ending 3-0 loss in the third round.
Despite the loss, there were still smiles all around the team in the postgame huddle where coach Lauren Carothers gathered the crew for one last chat of the season.
“Our biggest thing as a team is that we just really want to have fun,” Carothers said. “Every time we step on the field and every time we go to practice, which we don’t practice a lot because they are very, very smart kids and they have a lot of school work going on, but when we practice it’s very fun, it’s very uplifting. When we step onto the field for a game it’s fun, it’s uplifting. It can be 7-0, which it has been before, and they all still have a smile and they are laughing and they are cracking jokes. It’s just kind of the atmosphere we have.”
The Dons move on to play Booneville in the North Half Championship while the Blue Waves, who ended last season in the second round of the Class 1 playoffs, end this year’s campaign at 6-4-1.
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