STARKVILLE — It was classic Route 1 soccer.
Starkville Academy striker B.Z. Fratesi beat the defense with his legs and beat the goalkeeper with his skill to clinch a 2-1 win for the Volunteers in extra time on Monday night.
“That felt real good,” head coach William Wells said after the win. “They came ready to fight. The other team had to make it, they had to fight but we fought just as hard. That’s what we’ve been looking for, for them to play like that and come out like they did. I’m so proud of them, I really am.”
Starkville Academy’s boys soccer team clinched the top seed in its district on Monday night in a calm manner, just a simple extra-time comeback win on Senior Night against a Lamar team that had to win to force a three-way tie at the top.
The Vols, 9-4, finished with a 5-1 district record, losing only to second-seed Heritage Academy and taking down Lamar and Mag Heights both home and away.
“They’ve come so far this year, and I was a little worried at the beginning but they kept digging and kept coming after it,” Wells said. “I hope we can go on.”
Senior Hayden Parrish scored his 12th goal of the season just before halftime, equalizing after a slow start to the game. He acknowledged that the team needed to wake up after the first half.
Lamar had to win by multiple goals to keep their playoff hopes alive, and they certainly played like it. They dominated the early phase of the match, scoring in the first 10 minutes and keeping the pressure on.
“You could tell in the first half their intensity was a little better, they were beating us to the ball and just wanted it more,” Parrish said. “We regrouped and started working it through the midfield better, which worked for us.”
Wells was named head coach in the fall after a summer of searching for a head coach and reflected on the early practices after receiving a sports drink bath mid-interview.
“I had to change the way I usually coach, but also get them out of their culture to be great in soccer,” he said. “We had to start with conditioning, our touches were bad, our passes were bad, we were out of shape. We had to start over and work on those three things to get where we needed to be, but I’m so glad they bought in to get tougher and get in shape.”
The nature of the win reflected the journey, with seniors standing out all over the field in their final regular season game for the Vols. The group of Parrish, Nathan Miller, Andrew Olivier, Jackson Riekhof, Conner Bastow and Justin Crittenden were able to mark the celebrations with a big win, and keep their hopes of a run at a championship alive.
“I feel great about it,” Parris said. “It was a good game and Lamar put up a good fight and they wanted it a little bit more. If they didn’t win their season was over, but in the second half we really turned on and started playing well, and we went on to win it.”
Starkville Academy will face St. Aloysius in the first round of the playoffs on Thursday while Heritage will face Pillow Academy.
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