No. 14 Pearl River women's soccer team had to overcome an hour-long lightning delay and a sluggish start Tuesday night in its first conference soccer match of the year but exploded for seven second-half goals in the 9-2 victory over East Central.
Of PRCC's nine goals, eight different goal scorers were featured.
"I think the lightning delay got us off to a slow start and we defended poorly on their two goals," head coach Henrik Madsen said. "We were a little panicked, so at halftime we tried to settle the girls down and get them to go out and play like they know how.
"It was really good to see all the offensive success. We can see that they're taking the things that we go over in training and executing them in the match. Then it's just about composure in front of the goal."
Pearl River (5-0 overall, 1-0 MACCC) opened the scoring in style as Addy Grace Alexander (Poplarville) threaded the ball through defenders to Callie Jones (Laurel; West Jones), who put the ball into the back of the net to make the match 1-0.
After the Wildcats jumped out to an early lead, East Central (2-2-1, 0-1) quickly found its footing, responding with a goal of its own to level the score. Riding that momentum, they managed to slip ahead and briefly take control of the match and a 2-1 lead.
Trailing 2-1, Pearl River pulled even before the halftime whistle, thanks to a sharp assist from Alesha Gale (Rotherham, England) to Julie Svensson-Olesen (Aarhus, Denmark), who slotted the equalizer to send the teams into halftime 2-2.
After the break, it was all Pearl River. The Wildcats reclaimed the lead early in the second half when Isabella Nielsen(Vejle, Denmark) finished a pass from Emily Boles (Gulfport) to start the scoring frenzy and make it 3-2.
Shortly after, Nielsen notched an assist of her own, setting up Ida Lillibæk (Vejle, Denmark) for a goal that extended the lead to 4-2. Soon after, Alexander picked up her second assist of the game, setting up Gale to extend the lead to 5-2.
Shayla Nguyen (Long Beach) broke through for her first goal of the night to push the Wildcat lead to 6-2, with Gale recording her second assist to put her alongside Alexander as key playmakers in the Wildcats attack.
Not long after, Alexander added to her two-assist night by finding the back of the net, extending PRCC's lead to 7-2. Jones then scored her second goal of the night off an assist from Nguyen, making her the only Wildcat to score twice and extending the lead to 8-2.
In the closing moments of the game, Jones set up Boles for the final goal, sealing Pearl River's 9-2 win.
NEXT UP
Pearl River returns to the PRCC Soccer Complex Friday at 5 p.m. as rival Gulf Coast makes the trip to Poplarville.
TICKETS
Tickets for the 2025 Pearl River soccer season are available now at PRCCAthletics.com/Tickets. Advance-purchase tickets are $8, while gameday tickets are $10.
TUNE IN
The Wildcats will once again livestream all home games for free at PRCCMedia.com. Fans with Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV devices can also watch by downloading the "Pearl River CC" channel from their app store.
For the latest on Pearl River Community College athletics, follow us on X (@PRCCAthletics) and Facebook (PRCCAthletics).
