Quick start leads to Lady Jacket victory
It didn’t take the Starkville Lady Yellow Jackets long to get the scoring started against Class 6A, Region 3 opponent South Panola on Friday night.
Emma Wilson found the back of the net 18 seconds into the match and the Lady Jackets were on their way to a 7-0 home victory on a cold night in
Starkville.
“We just wanted to get goals off early so we could get out of the cold,” Wilson said. “We were working on getting quick goals.”
The Lady Jackets, who evened their records at 4-4-1 overall and 1-1 in the region, scored all of their goals in the first half and played only 5 minutes of the second half before the officials stopped the action due to the mercy rule.
Wilson had a pair of goals for Starkville, while Sara Pinzon, Hailey Miller, Skyler Miller, Zoe Elder and Addison Davis scored one goal each.
The Lady Jackets had 12 shots on goal, which was something that girls coach Abby Phillips wanted her team to work on.
“In previous games, we haven’t had
a lot of shots on goal, so taking those early shots and specifically then being on target was good,” Phillips said.
Phillips was happy to see the Lady Jackets win the first region game of 2021 and bounce back after a 2-0 loss to Tupelo on Tuesday.
Starkville still must play South Panola again on January 20 and hosts Germantown next Friday in region play.
Boys Match
Starkville 4, South Panola 0
The Jackets had to shake off a 3-0 loss to Tupelo, but found the success they were looking for against the visiting Tigers.
Starkville boys coach Evinn Watson was anxious to see how his team would react after falling for only the second time this season.
“We had some good practices and film sessions this week to try to get back on track,” Watson said. “I think we moved the ball
very well, but had trouble finding the back of the net in the first part of the first half, but luckily we have a big bench and the subs made a quick impact.”
Dominique Bush scored a pair of goals for the Jackets, while Soren Haupt and Ethan Pulliam added one goal each.
Pulliam got his goal with about 25 minutes left in the first half to get SHS started.
“Ethan came in and was huge for us with getting the ball up and wide,” Watson said. “Also our midfield was lights out tonight with movement and distribution.”
The Jackets improved to 9-2 overall and remained unbeaten in the region at 3-0 with two wins over South Panola now and one against Germantown.
If Starkville can defeat Germantown at home next Friday, it will become region champions.
“Overall, I think we played good enough of the win, but we need to improve a lot over these next couple of weeks with playoffs coming up,” Watson said. “I’m very happy that we got to get everyone some playing time.”