PURVIS – A soccer season to remember for the Purvis girls ended in disappointment.
The Tornadoes and Poplarville battled through 110 minutes of regulation and overtime, which ended with a 2-2 tie, and the Hornets prevailed in the penalty kick shootout 3-2 to advance in the Class 4A playoffs.
Poplarville (13-8-1) will host Bay High on Saturday in the third round of the playoffs; Purvis completed its season 11-8-0.
The Tornadoes fought back from a 2-0 first-half deficit to tie the game with a pair of second-half goals by sophomore Ellie Saffle, but they weren’t able to find the combination for another score.
“We have a very young team, and we have grown so much this season,” said Saffle. “I know we can grow our team even more next season. If we put in the effort, I think we can make it even further.”
The Tornadoes were playing from behind right from the very first minute of play.
Seconds after the opening kick, the Hornets attacked the goal and earned a corner kick from the right side. Junior Addison Alexander right on the foot of junior Abbie Ladner, who banged home the point-blank shot before Purvis could react.
“We had some history with them in the past, and I think some of us thought we were underdogs coming into the game,” said senior midfielder Ximena Miranda. “Mainly, it was just a lot of nerves.”
Purvis looked lost through the first 10 minutes of play before Saffle made a play that got her team focused.
In the 14th minute, Saffle broke free down the right sideline and fired an open shot that Hornet goalkeeper Josey Davis made a diving save to stop.
Junior Breanna Miller got a shot on goal off the rebound, but Davis made another save from a prone position in front of the goal mouth to keep Purvis off the scoreboard. Nevertheless, it gave the Tornadoes a confidence boost that they could play with Poplarville.
“I think we went into the game nervous,” said Saffle. “We’ve never been this far before. Purvis is a small team and it took a lot of years to build up to this point. Once we got a shot going, we started to relax and settled down.”
Still, Purvis wasn’t out of the woods in the first half, as a bit of misfortune resulted in Poplarville’s second goal in the 26th minute.
Again it was Alexander making the play for the Hornets. Attacking from the right side, sophomore Mallarie Cuevas sent a wicked shot that Tornado sophomore goalkeeper Riley McRaney saved, knocking the ball off the crossbar.
But Alexander was there to collect the rebound, fed a short pass to Cuevas and McRaney was out of position with no chance to save the second shot from Cuevas.
“With a young team, when we got down 2-0, we kind of put our heads down,” said Miranda. “I think we felt like we didn’t have a chance to win.
“But our assistant coach encourages us and our team encourages each other. She gave us a good pep talk at halftime, and that’s what got us back on track. We knew we had a chance. We definitely had a different mentality coming out in the second half.”
Indeed, Purvis was much more focused and took the fight to Poplarville in the second half, instead of sitting back.
Still, the Hornets had two good looks in the first 15 minutes of the period. Sophomore Elisabeth Beech bombed a 35-yard shot that McRaney took care of with little trouble, and Alexander had another close-in shot that the Tornado keeper fielded easily.
The game then turned on two minutes of brilliance from Saffle right at the halfway point of the second half.
In the 59th minute, Poplarville was whistled for a pushing foul inside the 18-yard box, resulting in a penalty kick for Purvis.
Saffle coolly stepped up and nailed the PK, then second later, came free on a counterattack breakaway and blasted home the tying goal from 25 yards out in the 60th minute.
“I was scared when I stepped into the box for the PK, but I knew I was given that opportunity for a reason, and I deserved that shot,” Saffle said. “It was a big confidence boost, because it let us know that we were still in the game and we had a chance of winning.”
The breakaway came after a fine pass from eighth-grader Abi Cook, who found Saffle at just the right moment to get ahead of the defense, while staying onside.
“I took the first touch, then got a second ball that gave me the opening,” Saffle said. “My teammates have told me that in situations like that, it takes 10 to 15 seconds of the best soccer of your life. I knew I had to give it my all on that play.”
Saffle got another shot on goal three minutes later, but the Hornets stiffened on defense and increased the offensive pressure, outshooting the Tornadoes 7-0 over the last 15 minutes of regulation.
Poplarville’s best chance to score in the late going was a shot by Alexander from the left side 20 yards out. McRaney had to leap high to her right and just got a finger on the ball to knock it away, her best save of the night.
“I think (Poplarville) thought after the first half that it was going to be an easy game for them,” said Miranda. “But it wasn’t an easy game for them. We fought hard.”
Neither team put much together offensively in any of the overtime periods, the two 10-minute overtime periods, and two five-minute golden-goal periods that followed. The Hornets did have one good look in the 100th minute, but McRaney was up to the task.
Purvis shot first in the PK shootout, but Saffle banged her shot off the left post, while Beech converted for Poplarville.
The roles were reversed in the second set of shots, with Miranda scoring for Tornadoes, while McRaney knocked away Ladner’s attempt.
It went back the other way on the third series, and senior Torie Richardson missed her shot wide right, while senior Meah Davis converted for the Hornets.
Poplarville had two chances to end the shootout in the next two rounds, when sophomore Madelyn Courtney put her shot off the left post in the fourth round.
But McRaney saved the Hornets’ next shot, by junior Ilee Hughes, and sophomore Ashiryah Nixon sent her shot over the crossbar, leaving the shootout tied 2-2 heading into the sudden-death rounds.
Davis saved the sixth-round shot by Purvis freshman Jacey West, and McRaney was left flat-footed on Alexander’s shot that found the right side of the net for the game-winner.
The Tornadoes claimed the game officials were talking to McRaney and distracting her prior to the final shot, and let Alexander shoot before she was ready, but their protests were to no avail.
“I thought we fought back really hard all night,” said Purvis head coach Viron Kersh, who was extremely bitter about the outcome. “Unfortunately, the ref was talking to our keeper and didn’t let her get set.”
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