It took the Sumrall boys just 80 minutes of near-perfect soccer to wipe out three years of playoff misfortune.
After coming up short in the final minutes of playoff losses in 2023 and 2025, the Bobcats left nothing to chance Tuesday night in the Class 5A South State boys soccer championship, dominating Northeast Jones from start to finish in a 2-0 victory at Lions Field.
Sumrall (21-7-1) will battle Pontotoc at noon Saturday at Germantown High School for the 5A state title, with the boys hoping to add a gold trophy to the Class 4A championship the Bobcat girls won in 2024.
“We have some pretty tragic memories from the playoffs,” said senior striker Wyatt Jones. “The past couple of years, some unfortunate things have happened, and it’s just been an extreme drive to not have that repeat itself for my senior year.
“I knew if I could stay in the game, our team would benefit.”
The Bobcats started out aggressively and never let up, leaning on a solid back line to support a crisp offensive game plan.
Sophomore forward Riley Eddins got an open look on goal less than two minutes into the game, from the deep right side, but wasn’t able to follow his shot.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” said Jones. “They play some high-low lines, but they stay on a low line, just because of our score lines earlier in the season.
“We knew they would come out physical and come out fast. So we just said we were going to match that, overdo it and go 110 percent the whole game.”
Sumrall followed that initial volley with five shots in rapid succession, two more on frame, putting up six shots in the first 11 minutes, as many as the Tigers would muster for the whole game.
“It was full effort,” said senior midfielder Boston Trussell. “We locked them up every time; they were on their back heels all game. Today my role was just to get in the way of things and go full energy for as long as possible. All in, every play.”
Despite dominating the play, the Bobcats weren’t able to get anything past senior goalkeeper Heriberto Castro until very late in the first half.
“I was a little worried,” said Sumrall head coach Jared Lee. “That’s what we talked about at halftime, was finishing our chances. They had a great couple of saves there from the keeper, and I thought their center backs played an excellent game.
“I told the boys we’ve got to be quicker, anticipate things better in the box, and find those finishes a lot faster.”
And Lee’s fears nearly came to fruition in the 27th minute of play, when Tiger junior Matthew Sykes picked up a rare defensive mistake for a breakaway onsides with no one between him and senior Bobcat keeper Blake Breazeale.
But junior Carsen Leslie swooped in from the right side to knock the ball out of danger. And that was about when Sumrall kicked pace up even higher.
“It was huge,” Lee said. “We talk about being defensively disciplined and keeping our backline shape steady throughout the game. Staying committed and staying focused was a huge part of this game.”
After not getting a single corner kick in the first 28 minutes of play, the Bobcats started successfully bouncing balls off defenders in the scoring area, earning three corners in a seven-minute span without a score.
But the fourth one set up the payoff. Trussell got a good kick from the left corner to sophomore Sawyer Hamner, who rifled a high pass that junior Mac Curtis got his head on to beat Castro inside the near post for his 14th goal of the season at 37:42 of the first half.
“They cleared it off the cross (on the corner kick),” said Curtis .”It came out to our striker, he put a perfect ball in, and I just followed it in with my head and ended up scoring. It was pretty neat.
“Northeast Jones has a great team, so we knew we needed to turn that advantage back to us, and we were able to do that with the corner kicks. We have a lot of options, and a one-man team isn’t a team at all. We need everyone contributing.”
The Bobcats demonstrated their versatility in the second half, smothering the Tigers on the defensive end and continuing to attack relentlessly on offense.
Jones, who came into the game as Sumrall’s leading scorer, had Castro way out of position just two minutes into the second half, but pushed his shot wide right past the wide-open net.
But Jones didn’t miss three minutes later, when a flurry of pinpoint passes left him with an open shot directly in front of an open net, and he hammered home his 20 score of the season to give Sumrall a commanding 2-0 lead.
A 2-0 lead can be dangerous, as some teams tend to let their guard down, when they’re still just one goal away from a one-score game again. But Lee had confidence in his defense to make the lead stand up.
“I think that little buffer was a huge confidence booster for our team,” Lee said. “We knew we could keep a clean sheet against them, and we had the confidence to know that if he we tacked in two (goals), they were going to have it.”
Saturday’s final will be played on a turf field, which isn’t a surface the Bobcats normally play on, so there will be an adjustment.
“We played one game at Mississippi Gulf Coast (Community College), but other than that, I don’t think we played another game on turf,” said Jones. “It’s a good bit different. The ball moves a lot faster, bounces a lot higher. So we’ll definitely be practicing on turf.”
