MADISON — From start to finish, Madison Central dominated.
Behind the play of Anderson Farrar and Landon Dale along with a stingy defense the Jaguars raced past Starkville 3-0 in the Second Round of the MHSAA Class 7A Soccer playoffs on Saturday night.
The Jaguars (14-3-1) will host Tupelo for the Class 7A North State Championship on Tuesday night.
“I thought the boys did well today and started the game well with a lot of intensity and stayed consistently in charge from start to finish,” said Madison Central coach Cecil Hinds. “Anderson is just super excited about playing and fortunately for him when we play Starkville, we get to see the best out of him and I can’t complain about anything.”
Farrar scored in the 16th minute on a header off a cross from Dale to give Madison Central a 1-0 lead.
Scored stayed the same until the 55th minute as Drew Raffaelle scored off a pass from Dale off a corner kick to extend the Madison Central lead to 2-0.
Farrar added his second goal of the game off another pass from Dale in the 76th minute to give the Jaguars a 3-0 lead and seal the win.
“We did what we needed to do and stayed consistent on the right side of the ball and a good thing for us is the result,” Hinds said. “One thing we take pride in is the defensive side of the ball. We know if we don’t give up goals and the boys are very stern and disciplined of what we ask of them and as a unit they work well together. Looking forward to who we have next and luckily for us we will have home-field advantage.”
Starkville only managed one shot on goal. The Yellowjackets finished the season 15-6.
“We know what Madison Central brings to the table and we tried to sit back and play more defense early and it worked out only being down 1-0 at halftime,” said Starkville coach Evinn Watson. “Once the second half came we had to change things up offensively and try to score and they ended up putting two in on the back of that, so very unfortunate. We played great and had the best year we’ve had since I’ve been here. We got to get back to work this offseason and get better.”
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