SUMRALL – After years of winning plenty of ball games and having not much to show for it, Sumrall will finally have a chance to change that.
The Lady Bobcats added their set of hardware by defeating Bay High 2-1 to claim the South State Championship and advance to their first-ever state title game.
“It’s huge,” said Sumrall coach Todd Siders on finally breaking through to the state title game. “Obviously, we want one more game, and that’s what I told them. We didn’t play our best tonight, and credit Bay for making it hard on us tonight. It’s not nice to break the door down.
“We knew going into the season that we had a good chance. I’m proud of how hard they have worked. I’m more proud of their character and resilience. They are a great group of young women that came together with a common goal.”
Two big kicks by juniors Rylee Kirkland and Addie Siders were the difference in Tuesday’s game. The duo have been staples for Sumrall’s teams since the seventh grade, as they have helped the program compile 77 wins in the last five seasons.
“It goes all the way back to our seventh-grade year,” said Addie Siders, who is committed to Southern Miss. “Our junior class has been here and working towards it. The grades before us have built towards this. I feel like we have deserved it for a while, and we finally punched our ticket. Having the number of people that were out here just shows how far our program has come. I couldn’t be more proud of us, and I’m super excited for Saturday."
Kirkland put Sumrall on the board as she hit the back of the net from 30 yards out in the 13 minute of the game.
“I was just looking to switch the ball,” said Kirkland, who leads the team with 25 goals. “I turned my foot. I received it and saw the (keeper) was off her line, and so I just hit it.
“We were watching her warmup and saw she wasn’t getting those high balls, and we knew we had to shoot well.”
Siders followed Kirkland’s big kick four minutes later, nailing a 40-yard kick in the upper 90 to push the lead to 2-0.
“They have big legs,” Todd Siders said. “I think their game plan was to not get beat in behind (their defense). We have been really good at that this year. That was very smart by them, but it left some distance for us, but it was great shots. You can’t place them any better with the power and accuracy. They stepped up in a big moment.”
Bay narrowed the score in the 29th minute after scoring off a corner kick. Despite the narrow score for the rest of the game, Sumrall’s offense maintained pressure and time of possession to limit the Tigers’ opportunities. By the end of the night, the Lady Bobcats outshot Bay 21-7.
“We have been waiting for this for a while,” Addie Siders. “We have a lot of young talent on our team. We have been working hard. We have been close every year. We didn’t play our best, but we did enough.”
Sumrall will now rematch West Lauderdale, which is not only the defending state champions but also defeated the Lady Bobcats 1-0 in the final two weeks of the season.
“Outside of 2021, it’s probably been a decade of them playing in the state championship, whether winning it or in the finals,” Todd Siders said. “They are experienced, and this will be nothing new for them. They are playing their best soccer right now. Coach Rogers is a fantastic coach. I’m looking forward to the challenge. They play hard. They play physical, and they are organized. We are definitely going to have to play our best.”
Sumrall and West Lauderdale will battle for the Class 4A title at Ridgeland High School on Saturday at noon.
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