COLUMBUS — Starkville Academy girls’ soccer landed the first blow in the season series against rivals Heritage Academy on Monday. The Volunteers (4-0) left Columbus with a 3-2 win, holding off a second-half surge by the Patriots (0-4) thanks to a 25-yard golazo by midfielder Rylee Fisher to seal a fourth straight win for the Vols.
“They know their worth is not just found in soccer, or any sport or school,” Vols head coach Boston Hampton said of his team. “They’ve rallied around each other, and like any team we have issues where we snap at each other sometimes, but they play for each other and I’m proud of them for that. They have fun, they have good attitudes, and it makes my job easier.”
The goal proved to be the winning goal, but at the time gave the Vols a 3-1 lead. They dominated the first half, creating several chances and going into the break up 2-0 with an early goal from Fisher and a penalty by Elizabeth Fair. They withstood a scrappy second-half performance by the hosts, who found goals through Kelsey Perkins and Lilian Moody, both assisted by Sophie Starks, but were able to hold on and see out the win.
“The way they played, the girls wanted it,” Hampton said after the game. “It’s that simple, they wanted it and they showed it.”
Hampton was happy with the result of the game but was even happier with the way they responded to adversity. He knew the Pats had the talent to cause problems, but gave credit to the team for the way they kept calm through the second-half chaos.
“I think anytime they score when you’re up it catches you off guard, but they obviously have a great team and some players committed to play (junior college). They didn’t give up and they held on until the very end. They rebounded and made it a competitive game, both teams refused to give up and it made for some good soccer.”
Heritage will get another shot at the Vols next Monday when the return fixture is played in Starkville, and head coach Jacob Hunt hopes to see the same level of play that he saw in the second half.
“It was all about energy,” he said. “We came out with better energy and looking at it from the individual actions, they were going for balls that we weren’t going for. Whether it was ugly or part of the flow they were going for it, and we were passive. Once we started going for it we made the game more chaotic, which played in our favor. It brought our energy up and got the fans going.”
The Patriots scored their first goals since the preseason in the second half, giving them some belief that they can hang with the opposition. They have struggled early on against strong opposition but there is hope that adversity can produce a response like what they saw in the second half.
“It’s just something they’ve got to play through,” Hunt said of the team’s struggles. “They’ve been in those situations before and were able to fight back, and we fought back today. We just have to keep doing that and come out stronger.”
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