SUMRALL – What was primed to be an historic night for Sumrall soccer turned out to be the same old story.
The Bobcats and Lady Bobcats continued their impressive winning ways this season, each earning their third straight region title and fourth straight playoff appearance, but the four-year-old program will go another year without winning a playoff contest.
The Lady Bobcats started the night with a 2-1 loss to Poplarville, then East Central handed the Bobcats a devastating 2-2 (7-6, penalty kicks) defeat to cap off the night. Both programs are now 0-4 in the postseason.
“Yeah, it’s 0-4, but when I took this job, people were telling me that we wouldn’t win a game for the first five years,” Sumrall boys and girls’ coach Todd Siders said. “Look where we are now. I think everybody respects us in the state, and I think everybody knows we’re going to give them a good game. These seniors have really elevated this program, and I can’t say enough about that.”
PHOTOS: Click for photos from Matt Bush.
The Sumrall boys began the game by digging itself into an early 1-0 hole. After a fifth-minute goal by the visitors, East Central scored its second goal just before the halftime whistle to send Sumrall into the break down 2-0.
“They had two shots on goal in the first half and they scored both of them,” Siders said. “It was a lack of execution on our part. We’ve worked on marking, and unfortunately, we have two mental lapses and we’re down 2-0. If we don’t do that, we come away with the win.”
The Bobcats didn’t quit, however. After a cross by junior Benson Trussell on East Central’s side of the field in the 58th minute, senior Austin Miller’s header found the back of the net to cut the Hornets’ lead to 2-1. Miller had a few more opportunities later in the second half to tie the game, too, but East Central kept the lead as the ending drew closer.
In the final 10 minutes, Sumrall had scoring try after scoring try until the 78th minute when the Bobcats got the equalizer. Senior Avery Petro sent a throw-in into the box and junior Graham Rodney connected with the bouncing ball. The shot floated over the East Central keeper’s hands, and snuck just under the crossbar to send the game into overtime.
“We had chances to win it,” Siders said of his team’s flurry of attacks. “We had a lot of goals there for us and we just didn’t finish. It was kind of the story of our year. We’ve made mistakes and we get punished for it. We left too many opportunities out there.”
After two 10-minute periods and 10 more minutes of golden-goal overtime, the teams went into penalty kicks to decide which will advance to the second round of the 4A playoffs.
Both teams made four of the first five penalty kicks, and Sumrall and East Central matched each other until the eighth round of tries. Sumrall’s kick was blocked, and East Central’s game-winner was flush.
“It’s a tough way to go,” Siders said. “It’s a cruel sport sometimes. What can you say? The effort was there. To dig yourself a 2-0 hole and fight back, it’s a test of the character of these kids. They fought hard. Just fell a little short.”
The Bobcats season comes to an end with a 14-8 overall record.
Poplarville 2, Lady Bobcats 1
Sumrall won a regular-season matchup 1-0 with the Lady Hornets earlier this season, but something was different Tuesday night.
“They just wanted it more than us,” Siders said. “I’ve never been in an elimination game where we came out and didn’t want to push the issue. I’m disappointed in that regard, and that falls on me. I didn’t get them mentally prepared enough, and that one is going to hurt for a while.”
PHOTOS: Click for photos from Matt Bush.
Poplarville scored the game’s first goal five minutes into the second half, then it added a second goal six minutes later to take a commanding 2-0 lead with less than 30 minutes to play.
Desperately needing a goal, Sumrall’s leading goal scorer, junior Caragan Childs, beat her defender up top then tapped the ball past the Poplarville keeper to make it a 2-1 game.
Poplarville held strong from the final 20 minutes to eliminate the Lady Bobcats, though.
Sumrall finishes the season 16-5-2.
