SA girls advance in soccer playoffs
Another strong defensive effort gives SA a victory to open the postseason
The Starkville Academy defense came out on Tuesday night looking to ensure a soccer victory in its first round playoff game against Bayou Academy.
Coach Matt Sykes and his Lady Volunteers had not lost a game since August 11, and they did what was necessary and more to to keep their winning streak alive.
After a great performance defensively and a multitude of great performances individually on offense, SA was able to win 8-0.
This win pushes the Lady Vols to 11 wins, and brings their number of shutouts to 10 this year. Bonner Hughes, one of the SA defenders, was a key factor in the win and a focal point for the defense all season.
She was motivated about the team's defensive play.
"Before every game we always tell our goalie that we aren't going to let anything passed us," Hughes said. "That's literally our goal. We don't want anything passed us. We want our goalie to have an easy game. (Tuesday) that meant a lot. It's a great start to the postseason. I think it gives us momentum knowing that we aren't allowing any goals."
The Lady Vols off strong and never looked back at all. They scored two goals within the first 20 minutes of the game.
Bayou Academy did fight its way down the field and into a good scoring situation with a free kick. This is when it just seemed like nothing could go wrong for Starkville Academy as it was able to counter that free kick and take it all the
way down field for its third score of the game. The score stood 3-0 until the end of the first half.
After the half, the Lady Vols let out an all out assault on the Bayou Academy goal keeper as they scored five goals in 20 minutes of play. This pushed the score to the final.
Among the goals scored came a special individual performance.
Senior midfielder Sydney Passons tallied a
hat trick along with another assist in what was a huge postseason performance.
Passons was excited about her performance and what Sykes has brought to the table for the team.
"I think we were a little slow in the first half, but when we started to connect our passes like we talked about at halftime, we got everyone fired up," Passons said. "Then we really started to connect our passes and do what we said we were going to do. Matt brings a lot of fun. He's so passionate about it. When you have someone that is so passionate
about it, it carries along to the rest of us. It's just a lot of fun."
Sykes and his team have much at stake in the upcoming week as it is set to face off against Indianola Academy in the North State Championship on Thursday night.
Even thought he was happy with his team's performance, Sykes knows it has much to improve on before Thursday.
He was pleased with the win, but also knows what's ahead.
"I mean you can't argue with a shutout," Sykes said. "That's what you try to go out defensively and get every time. The defense is a brick wall. I'm not worried about when it gets back there. I know our center and outside defense are going to protect our keeper. I think it gives me a little bit better understanding for the players.
"I'm always looking to improve them in a new fun way. If you go out and do something over and over it gets a little boring, so we try to have fun with everything we do. We were a little sloppy by playing something we call kick ball instead of playing true soccer. We just really look to improve on that."