GREENWOOD — Roughly halfway through the second half of Starkville Academy’s first-round playoff match Tuesday against Pillow Academy, Volunteers coach John Morgan jogged along the sideline to talk to senior goalkeeper Meri Laci Archer.
The Vols led the host Mustangs 1-0, but Starkville Academy’s Lauren Bock had just been shown a yellow card and promptly subbed out. Morgan informed Archer he planned to put the offensive-minded Bock, who had scored the Vols’ goal in the first half, back into the game if Pillow managed a tying score.
“We’re not giving up a goal,” Archer immediately shot back.
She kept her promise.
Archer turned away scoring chance after scoring chance all match, Bock’s goal stood as the only tally of the match after a Pillow score was disallowed, and the underdog Vols stayed alive with a hard-won 1-0 victory.
“I was lucky to have such a good defense on my side,” Archer said. “They saved me a lot of times. We’ve been together for a while, and I’m just happy we got a win.”
The Vols’ defense was certainly well tested in the first half, when Bock’s goal was one of the few times the ball even neared the side the Mustangs were defending. Starkville Academy saw Pillow’s offensive prowess in two earlier losses this season, but this time the Vols managed to weather it.
“We basically just told them, ‘You’re gonna see an onslaught. They’re gonna come at you with everything they have,'” Morgan said. “And they did. I literally think they threw everything but the goalkeeper at us.”
The constant pressure resulted in a penalty to Pillow about 25 minutes in. Sophomore Sarah Presley Howard drove the ball past Archer’s outstretched palm and hit the left goalpost, sending the ball skidding out over the middle of the field. The Mustangs knocked it in from there and celebrated, but referees conferred and disallowed the score to loud cheering from the Starkville dugout.
“The rule is, if the ball bounces off the post and a player on their team follows it up, it’s offsides,” Morgan said. “If it had touched her hands, it would have been completely live. I think they were gonna allow it until I was screaming at them.”
Archer knew the importance of that near-miss, and she didn’t miss an opportunity to remind her teammates how close they were to an even match.
“I told them, ‘We got lucky. We gotta step that up. It can’t happen again,'” Archer said.
The Mustangs still had plenty of chances in the second half, but none as close as they got in the first. Still, Pillow considerably outshot Starkville Academy, and Archer conceded that the Vols were fortunate not to concede.
“Statistically, we should not have even been in the game,” Archer said. “We came in the underdogs, and we knew it.”
Morgan stressed the importance of being able to ‘win early’ — Bock’s goal came less than 15 minutes into the match — and shutdown defense after that initial score.
“It was just, with the limited opportunities that we get, can we make it count and just hunker back and play defense?” Morgan said. “And that’s what we did.”
The win sets up a matchup for Starkville Academy at Lamar on Thursday. The Vols lost twice to the Raiders earlier this season, and they know the threat Lamar poses.
“They have speed, aggression,” Archer said. “They have what feels like 7-foot girls even though they’re like 5-10.”
The Vols will be underdogs again on the road against a higher seed. Just how they like it.
“I think we’re ready for the game,” Archer said. “Once again, we have absolutely nothing to lose.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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