“Tupelo and Starkville, the rivalry goes back years and years and years, so it’s always good when we can get a win on Tupelo, especially with how the district is playing out this year,” Starkville head coach Evinn Watson said. “It’s up for grabs for anybody. Madison Central, Clinton, Tupelo, anybody can really win it this year. Any time you can get a district win, it’s massive.”

Starkville (13-3, 3-2) struck first after a little over 10 minutes. Silas Walker pounced on a rebound and easily tucked it into the back of the net to open the scoring. The two teams traded chances for the rest of the first half, but the score stood at 1-0 at halftime.

The Yellow Jackets doubled their advantage to open the second half and continued to pour it on. Brandon Shaffer then made the most of an opportunity on a counterattack to add a third goal. Starkville enacted some revenge after Tupelo (12-4, 3-2) beat Starkville on the road earlier in the season.

“This is huge for our program,” Shaffer said. “For the first time in a long time, they came down and beat us in Starkville. That just was an embarrassing feeling for us. They beat us really bad, and we wanted this. And this felt so good.”

Tupelo pulled it back within two goals when Reid Browning scored with just under 15 minutes to go. The Golden Wave then drew a penalty kick, which Angel Perez slotted into the goal. But Tupelo couldn’t find the game-tying goal in the end.

“Tough game, they made it difficult for us to go forward,” Tupelo head coach Harris Faucette said. “It took us a while to get anything building it up to go. Finally, late in the second half, we were already down 3-0, we were able to get that goal and then get another one.”