RIDGELAND – As Addie Siders stepped up to the ball for a free kick with just 25 seconds remaining in overtime, a voice from the Sumrall sideline rang out telling Siders, “this is your moment.”
And the Bobcat junior made the moment hers, delivering a strike into the net to give Sumrall a dramatic 2-1 victory over West Lauderdale Saturday afternoon in the Class 4A girls soccer state championship game at Titan Field.
The win, on a cold, blustery day, capped a glorious season for Sumrall (23-3-1) in its ninth season of high school soccer. West Lauderdale finished its season 17-6-2.
“Every girl who had put on this uniform, this is for them,” said Sumrall head coach Todd Siders, who started the program from scratch in 2014. “The goal was to do it within a decade, so goal accomplished.”
The Bobcats took a lead in the first half in the 18th minute of play, as the sister combination of freshman Presley Kirkland and junior Rylee Kirkland teamed up as they have so many times this season.
Presley Kirkland drove the ball up the left side and delivered a perfect crossing pass to Rylee, who knocked the shot in from the right side of the goal at point-blank range for her team-high 26th goal, on her sister’s 22nd assist.
The goal came just five minutes after Rylee Kirkland just missed on an open look that flew wide left of the net.
“I saw it coming across the six-yard box and I just hit it right,” said Rylee Kirkland “I missed one earlier; hit it with the top of my foot, so I knew I had to finish the next one.
“I love playing with my sister. We just connect on a level without really saying much. It’s just an easy pass between us, the way we’re thinking.”
Sumrall owned the first half, peppering the Knights with eight shots, while allowing just one shot, which sophomore goalkeeper Darby Ford made an easy save on.
But the game turned just seconds into the second half, when the Bobcats were called for a push inside the 18-yard box, resulting in a penalty kick.
Ford guessed right on the shot by West Lauderdale eighth-grader Aubri Cooper, but she wasn’t able to stop the kick from sneaking inside the right post for a tying goal in the 41st minute.
“I told myself this is where it counts,” said Ford. “Our motto all year has been to finish well, because we’re trying to finish well in life and in the game. I just told myself it is what it is and we have to come out with what we want the result to be.”
But rather than getting down about the misfortune, the Bobcats went back to work, relying on their leaders to get back on track.
“We talked about it before the game, how we knew we were going to have more chances, that if something like that happened, to just regroup and not get frantic,” said Addie Siders, who is Todd Siders’ niece.
“We knew if we got frantic and got into a kickball game, back and forth, that wasn’t our game. We just needed to settle it down and play our game. So, I brought our team together told everyone to just calm down, that we had plenty of time.”
Siders has committed to play for Southern Miss once she finished her career at Sumrall.
“I think when she committed to Southern Miss, a huge weight was lifted off her back and she’s played very free and easy this year,” said Todd Siders. “We’ve got a lot of talent, and she knows that and she’s trusted that.”
Sumrall created plenty of chances in the second half, getting eight shots, but only two were on frame.
“That was the one thing I was disappointed about in South State, when we gave up a goal, we kind of panicked a little bit,” said Todd Siders.
“So that was the message today. I told them, you’re going to face adversity. So can we slow things down, can we keep possession of the ball can we play our game. I felt like if we could play our game, we had a good chance to win.”
However, the Bobcat back line tightened its grip the way it did in the first half, limiting the Knights to just four shots, none in the final 20 minutes of the period.
“My mental game is to always grow,” said Ford. “I just told myself to put it behind me and live in the now. I knew I wanted a certain result, and in order to get that result, I had to put myself out there.”
Sumrall’s best scoring chance in the second half came in the 74 minute, when Presley Kirkland fired a shot dead-on from 25 yards out that ended up in the chest of Knights junior keeper Haley Graham.
Neither team got much done in the first 10-minute overtime. Each team got a shot on goal, but both keepers were up to the task.
But with the stiff wind at their back, Sumrall came out for the second overtime with more determination not to let the game go to the 10-minute golden-goal overtime period.
Sophomore Ashton Stringfellow got a good shot just one minute into the second period, then followed that three minutes later with another good look.
West Lauderdale had one good chance in the 94th minute, getting a turnover and an open shot from 20 yards out, but the shot went just over the crossbar.
With time running out, the Bobcats asserted themselves in the midfield with back-to-back shots in the 98th minute that just slid left of the goal.
Sumrall’s pressure was rewarded in the final minute of overtime, as the Knights were called for a handball just outside the right corner of the 18-yard box.
Siders lined up the shot, saw an opening and buried the kick into the upper left corner of the net, setting off a wild celebration on the Sumrall sideline.
“I knew we had a free kick right outside the box, we only had 25 seconds left, and we needed a goal,” said Addie Siders. “I saw their wall was kind of shifting, I saw a gap, took a deep breath and just hit it.
“It was a tough game, a lot of back and forth, battling, and I knew that if I could get it, there was only 25 seconds left. I knew I needed to step up for the team.”
Seconds later, the celebration was on in earnest as time ran out.
“We worked so hard for this, to have something to show for it, how far we’ve come and we’ve worked,” said Addie Siders. “I’m just so filled with joy right now.”
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