Hat trick from senior lifts Jackets
There is never a bad time to get a hat trick in soccer.
Starkville High School senior Dominique Bush picked a pretty good time to do it Friday night with it being senior night and a key Class 6A, Region 3 match against South Panola.
Bush scored three goals and Ethan Pulliam scored the other as the Yellow Jackets defeated the Tigers 4-1 at home.
“Just keeping my head straight and working hard every day,” Bush said about the frequency of finding the back of the net.
Bush appears to be getting on a roll at the right time for SHS and that pleases head coach Evinn Watson.
Watson said senior night may have been a motivating factor for Bush, but hopes that will lead to more production down the stretch of the season.
“It’s his day to shine and he came out and did it,” Watson said. “We were kind of expecting it from him all year, but since he did it tonight, that’s something to look forward to and build on for the rest of the year, especially
since the playoffs are coming up in the next month.”
Pulliam and Bush scored within a couple of minutes from each other as the Jackets took a 2-0 lead with 15:52 remaining in the first half. Bush scored again at the 10:11
mark as SHS increased its advantage to 3-0 at halftime.
Bush had the only goal of the second half with about 25 minutes left in the match.
“Since it was senior night, we tried to start all of our seniors, but we ended up playing pretty well,” Watson said. “We started out playing well and getting some goals in, then we started getting some
of that bench in like we’re used to. I’m pretty happy with it, but hopefully we can keep on rolling with scoring early goals and getting that deep bench in.”
With the win, the Jackets improved their records to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in the division.
The SHS girls were not able to play South Panola
on Friday, but the program recognized seniors Bush, Ryan Leach, Connor Davis, Paul Perez, Andrew Keith, Mckee Mulroney, Brianne Locke, Nadia Borazjani, Karlie Brooks, Libby Mattox, Zoe Elder and Jenna Jackson for their contributions to the Jackets.
Starkville goes on the road to face Lewisburg today.