By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
HATTIESBURG – In soccer, as in most sports, the only statistic that counts is the one on the scoreboard.
The Oak Grove girls learned that painful lesson the hard way Tuesday night in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs at Warrior Field.
Despite an overwhelming advantage on the stat sheet, the Lady Warriors fell to Biloxi 2-0 and saw their season come to an unexpectedly early end at 12-5. Biloxi (13-5-2) will host Ocean Springs in the second round of the playoffs on Saturday.
“Soccer is a funny game,” said Oak Grove coach Clay Smith. “We should have had three or four goals in the first half, but we just couldn’t find the net.”
Indeed, Biloxi only got two shots all night, but both found the back of the net after the Lady Indians were able to get quick counterattacks on both occasions to get odd-man advantages.
“We certainly knew the threat they posed going forward,” said Biloxi coach Todd Moniz. “They have some exceptional players, and we knew that if we tried to play them player-for-player against them, it would be a tough night.”
By contrast, the Lady Warriors had 22 shots, but only seven on-goal against a stingy Biloxi defense that bent but never broke.
“We shot the ball all over the place, and they literally got the ball in our half (of the field) two times, and they scored both times,” said Smith.
“That’s how soccer is sometimes. You can do all the fancy stuff you want, but if you don’t put the ball in the back of the net, it doesn’t matter. Once they got that (first) goal, it just upped their energy.”
Oak Grove pushed the pace early and had three good looks in the first three minutes. The Lady Warriors thought they had a goal in the seventh minute when junior Ally Stiglets pushed in a rebound off a shot from senior Taylor Stewart, but it was waved off on an offsides call.
“It was explained that when the shot was made, she was in an offsides position, and the keeper blocking it doesn’t reset offsides,” said Smith. “It looked to me like there was a defender there too, but I’d have to see the film to know for sure.”
Nevertheless, Oak Grove continued to attack, and Stewart nearly bombed one in from 25 yards out in the 26th minute that Biloxi goalkeeper Breanna Abston had to make a quick save to stop.
But disaster struck just two minutes later for the Lady Warriors.
After a foul, the Lady Indians pushed a long pass on a free kick past the Oak Grove defense and sophomore Addison Yelverton was there to set up sophomore Abigail Radicia for a point-blank shot that beat Lady Warrior junior keeper Grace Maxwell just inside the right post.
“We had a plan to have some extra players and have a second defender around as much as possible around certain players, and it worked for us,” said Moniz.
“We have some speed, some athleticism, skill and composure with our top two (Yelverton and Radicia), so we knew that if we could get them into our half and shorten up the numbers, that could work in our favor.”
The second half started out much like the first, with the Lady Warriors dominating possession in the attacking end.
Stiglets got a shot on goal in the 45th minute, then sophomore Bailee Bennett whistled a shot just wide right in the 51st minute.
But just like the first half, the Lady Indians got a longball on a counterattack in the 59th minute, and Radicia broke free down the right side with only one defender to beat.
Radicia bounced a shot over Maxwell’s head after the Oak grove keeper came out to challenge the play, and the ball rolled into the net before she could recover for a 2-0 lead.
Oak Grove had two more good chances to score in the final minutes, both by Bennett, a rocket from the right side in the 76th that Abston played perfectly and a final shot on-goal in the third minute of stoppage time that Abston also handled.
“Well, I’m proud of my girls for a great season,” said Smith. “This is definitely not the way you want to end, in the first round, but credit Biloxi. They wanted it more, and they went and got it.”
Photos courtesy of Jesse Johnson
