Sports

The Lady Hornet soccer team defeated South Jones 3-1 Tuesday night in round one of the playoffs.

East Central (10-7-4) hosted South Jones on January 24 in the first-round of the 5A soccer playoffs.  South Jones opened the scoring on a goal by Katlyn Graham with 5:40 remaining in the first half and took a 1-0 lead into halftime.  That lead, however, was short-lived.  After recording only 4 shots on goal in the first half, East Central’s Kacy Mixon broke past the back-line of South Jones and tied the score at 1-1 only 45 seconds into the second half. 

The Hornets were able to keep pressure on the South Jones defense, keeping them on their heels, and eventually forced a defensive mistake giving the Hornets an opportunity for a penalty kick.  Savannah Carpenter hit the penalty kick giving the Lady Hornets a 2-1 lead.  Mixon iced the game with 23 minutes remaining in the contest when she again broke past the back-line defenders and easily won the one-on-one against the South Jones keeper giving the Hornets a 3-1 lead.

Hornet keeper, Whitney Overstreet, recorded seven saves and the Lady Hornets staved off three corner kicks in final minute of the contest to preserve the victory and advance to the second round.  A very excited Overstreet said, “We were very lucky, very lucky…They had so many opportunities and we should have scored more than three.”   

East Central’s Head Coach, Ryan Ceccorulli said, “We have a lot of work to do in the next three days to be ready, but it was a good win. There were some good things, like being able to come back in the second half and scoring within the first 45 seconds.  That shows they can do it, but we have to be consistent…that is our downfall.”

The Lady Hornets will travel to Pearl on Saturday for round two. The Link will be there, so pick up next week's paper for details of the game.

Pictured here, Keeper Whitney Overstreet defends the Hornet’s goal with a slide tackle to clear the ball.

 

 

 

 

 

1/24       EC 3, South Jones 1 (VG)

1/28       EC 2, Pearl 1 (VG)

 

1/24       EC 60, Moss Point 82 (VB)

1/24       EC 51, Moss Point 57 (VG)

1/27       EC 35, Gautier 32 (VG)

1/27       EC 38, Gautier 43 (VB)

 

 

1/27       Vancleave 65, Greene Co. 33 (VG)

 

 

 

2/6         District Basketball Tournament TBA (EC and Vancleave)

 

 

1/31       EC v Pascagoula                                                JV/VG/VB           Away     5:00

2/3         St. Lukes                                              VG/VB                  Away     5:00

 

 

1/31       Vancleave v. St. Stanislaus           JVB/VB                 Home    5:00