By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
HATTIESBURG – Sometimes, you just need a wake-up call.
The Oak Grove boys certainly got a rude awakening early in their first-round match against Harrison Central in the Class 6A soccer playoffs at Warrior Field.
After surrendering a goal just six minutes into the game, the Warriors came alive and rolled past the Red Rebels 3-1 to advance in the postseason. Oak Grove (15-3) will host Ocean Springs at 6 p.m. Saturday in the second round. Harrison Central finished its season 13-7-4.
“It’s something you want to see, but you don’t want to see,” said Warrior coach Jesse Lang. “You want to see how your team reacts when they’re down, because we haven’t been in that situation a lot this season. And we didn’t react very well.”
The Red Rebels jumped ahead in the sixth minute after a foul was called on the Warriors near midfield along the left sideline.
Harrison Central senior goalkeeper Alec Pierce came up to take the free kick and put the pass right on the foot of senior Juan Rivera, who punched the shot past Oak Grove junior keeper Josh Goodwinn.
“We kind of panicked and started playing longball, which we never do,” said Lang. “We’re usually more of a build-up team. When they scored early, I guess we thought we had to turn around and score right back, and we started playing it long.
“And playing it up against them just gave it to their keeper to kick it back down the other end. When we started settling down and started making connections, started making passes, we got better chances.”
And once they did settle down, it was pretty one-sided.
Just six minutes after falling behind, the Warriors got level when senior Cody Collins got right in front of the goal for an open shot. Pierce saved the first shot, but Collins calmly banged in the rebound for a 1-1 tie.
“I got a great pass from my teammate,” said Collins. “It really wasn’t on me; it was my teammates who set me up. I just put it in the net.
“We were focused. We weren’t worried about (the early deficit). It was basically 0-0; we were back in the game minutes later.”
With their midfielders dominating, Oak Grove had plenty of opportunities to take the lead, and with less than a minute remaining in the first half, the Warriors cashed one in.
Junior Cade Ortego came out of a furious scrum in front of the net with a clear look at the left side of the net and slipped the ball just inside the left post for the go-ahead score.
“We definitely needed it before half,” said Ortego. “You take a big break at half like that, then you come back out like it’s 0-0.
“It was a great play from Luke (Dickson) and Garrett (Stephens) and the whole left side. I was just there at the right place at the right time.”
The Warriors finished the first half with 10 shots, seven on-goal, while Harrison Central had just one shot, a good look by senior Genesis Martin in the 16th minute, the remainder of the period.
Oak Grove kept the pressure on in the second half, hitting the Red Rebels with a flurry of shots on consecutive sequences near the 50-minute mark.
Junior Luke Dickson had a shot that Pierce made a diving save on in the 50th minute, then Collins came away with a spectacular breakaway goal in the 51st minute to put the Warriors up 3-1.
“We had a good talk at halftime, and we had some things we needed to fix,” said Ortego. “It wasn’t our prettiest game, but we knew what we had to do. It’s a playoff game, so you’ve got to give it everything you’ve got. You don’t want this to be your last game.”
Dickson nearly made it 4-1 just a minute later on a rocket shot from the left side, but Pierce was up to the challenge.
Drama ensued a few minutes later when Collins went down on a knee and was having trouble breathing. After getting some water and some help to the bench, he sat out the rest of the game.
“I had Covid last week, so I’m still recovering,” said Collins. “I had a little Covid attack. I’m feeling better now. We’re ready for more; bring it on.”
Collins missed more drama in the 61st minute, when an increasingly chippy contest resulted in Warrior junior Ethan Miller getting a red card after what was ruled a unnecessarily vicious collision.
Playing the rest of the game with only 10 men on the field didn’t seem to faze the Warriors, though, as they continued to attack.
“I’m not sure these kids know how to just sit back,” said Lang. “If I said, ‘sit back and pass it around,’ I’m not sure they could; they’re going to go forward.
“There’s a danger in that when you’re down one of getting caught with too many people up. But I thought they did a good job with 10 (men) still working to score. We had a couple of chances when we were down, then we were able to get back to defend.”
Harrison Central got a pair of shots on goal in the first five minutes with the man advantage, but that was it, as the Warriors played longball and kept the Red Rebels from building any kind of attack.
“We turned the ball over way more than we probably should have,” said senior midfielder Brady Mills. “We should have kept possession a little better with a man down. We kicked it long and gave them a few chances.
“Coaches told us not to stop, so we kept trying. We didn’t score, but we at least kept the pressure up.”
Oak Grove finished with 17 shots in all, with 11 on goal, to just five for Harrison Central.
Saturday’s second-round game will be a rematch of a game in which the Warriors defeated the Greyhounds 2-1 on November 6. Lang hopes it’s not a repeat of what happened a year ago.
“We beat them earlier in the season here, and I hope we can do it again,” said Lang. “Same thing happened last season. We beat them at their place, then went down there in the playoffs and got beat.
“It’s all mental now. Are we mentally ready to play the game? They’re good enough that the team that makes the fewest mistakes is going to end up winning the game.”
Photos courtesy of Jesse Johnson
