The Oak Grove girls soccer team not only needed to defeat Brandon but also had to beat them by at least two goals if the Lady Warriors wanted a chance to win their sixth straight region title.
Sure enough, Oak Grove delivered a 2-0 home win on Tuesday night after Kayla Herring scored both goals on penalty kicks.
“I couldn’t be any more proud of these girls,” Oak Grove coach Clay Smith said. “We worked hard. We have great senior leaders. Kayla Herring stepped up, taking two penalty kicks, which is tough to do back-to-back and nail both of them. I’m just proud of the whole team.
“We have always had a lot of battles with Brandon. The Brandon-Oak Grove rivalry goes back 15 years or even more. I’m just so proud of my girls for fighting hard and getting that 2-0 win that we needed.”
A critical part of setting up both of Herring’s goals was Smith noticing in the Lady Warriors’ previous 3-2 loss to Brandon (13-5, 5-1) that the Lady Bulldogs’ goalkeeper opted to knock balls away than catch them. Smith pushed for his team to press attacks rather than back off, and sure enough, the Lady Warriors both times drew PKs as a result.
“We realized after playing them the first time that (Brandon’s) goalkeeper is real risky,” Smith said. “As a goalkeeper, she likes to come out. We were ready for that. I told the girls how we were going to deal with that. When you get penalty kicks, that means you are putting a lot of pressure on the other team.”
Oak Grove (10-4, 4-1) found success in the game’s fourth minute and took a 1-0 lead after Herring notched her first goal on a PK.
“We have practiced PKs a lot recently because we knew if we got to it, that we would have to do that for district,” said Herring, who is signed with Southern Miss. “I used to go to the right, but I took one against Brandon last year in the second round of the playoffs and missed it. So I started practicing the other way more. I’ve been going to the right a lot more. I was actually quite nervous, but I knew that I had to calm down. I knew that I had got this and that I could make it. I like to play games with the keeper.”
Herring’s goal gave Oak Grove a 1-0 lead at the half, despite the Lady Warriors outshooting Brandon 9-3.
In the 57th minute of the second half, Oak Grove drew another PK kick. This time Herring had debated on changing her shot despite having more confidence.
“I was nervous but confident,” Herring said. “The second PK, I debated if I needed to change my way up just because she knew that I was going to go that way. But if you do that, then it messes with you more than the keeper, so I did everything the same.”
After Herring’s heroics, Brandon had an opportunity to erase the needed 2-0 win as the Lady Bulldogs drew a PK with roughly 15 minutes left in the game. However, the Lady Warriors’ goalkeeper, Grace Maxwell, came up with the needed stop. The initial shot hit the top of the crossbar, but Maxwell, who finished the game with five saves, managed to knock away a second attempted shot to end the threat.
“Our goalkeeper came up big on their penalty kick that they had,” Smith said. “I didn’t watch it. I never watch them. I don’t know if she got her hand on it or not, but she made some great crucial saves in the first half. She did well.”
Oak Grove got off 18 shots by the end of the night while holding Brandon to just six.
“They like to play long ball,” Smith said. “The backline knows that they have to deal with all of those balls, and they did well tonight. It’s one of those things where they don’t have to have a lot of skill or position. They competed with their hustle and strength, and so we withstood that. That was really big tonight.”
Oak Grove will now have to defeat Petal on Thursday in the regular-season finale to clinch the region. The Warriors handed the Panthers a 4-0 defeat back on Jan. 7.
“The key is to win your district,” Smith said. “I preach to them all year that we don’t worry about the schedule. You don’t want to worry about going undefeated. Going undefeated is overrated. We want to win the district, host the first round, and then it’s a new season. You’d rather play a second-place team than a first-place team in your first round. That’s what we did tonight. As long as we take care of Petal, then we will host the first round.”
