AMORY – Despite falling behind early, Amory showed poise and perseverance.
The Lady Panthers rallied from a two-goal deficit, forced overtime and beat the South Pontotoc Lady Cougars 3-2 on a golden goal on Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A state tournament.
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Amory travels to face New Albany on Tuesday in the 4A North half final. The Panthers will head in with a 12-game winning streak.
“They just bought in, and they played hard,” Amory coach Nathan Clayton said. “They’ve been doing it all year.”
Regulation was not enough to determine a winner, and neither were two overtime periods. This led to a five-minute period where the next goal scored determined the winner.
With about 1:30 to go, Jane Kate Boykin got wide open on the left side, took a pass, ran downfield and put the ball in the bottom right-hand corner of the net to win it.
“It was just like, ‘This is either I miss it and we keep going, or I make it and the game’s over’,” Boykin said. “It was a good play. I was glad that it went in.”
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The Lady Cougars (16-4) got on the board 15 minutes in on a goal by Jannel Almazan. Harper Rush added one of her own three minutes later to make it 2-0. Amory (17-6) had been going with a three-person back line up to that point, but added a fourth after the second goal. It made a big difference.
“We didn’t give up a shot after that. On goal or anything,” Clayton said. “So I thought the back line composed itself.”
Meanwhile, on the offensive end, Mylie Williams got the Lady Panthers on the board with just over five minutes left in the first half. In the second half, Williams lined up for a corner kick with 25 minutes left. Her kick ricocheted off the goalie and went in for the equalizer.
“I think everybody just needed to take a deep breath,” Williams said. “And once we were able to do that, we just needed to put shots on the frame. I think that’s what we did.”
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The loss for South Pontotoc concludes one of its better seasons in recent memory. The Lady Cougars won their first region title in eight years and had won 14 straight coming into Saturday.
“The Lord has blessed our team 100% this season,” coach Kari Davis said. “We’ve accomplished things this year that nobody expected.”
Friday, (B): New Albany 7, Amory 0
Amory was able to hold New Albany off the scoreboard for 26 minutes, but the Bulldogs broke the scoring drought and went on to take the mercy-rule win of 7-0 during the 4A quarterfinals.
Samir Peraza scored the first goal for New Albany, and they totaled three scores in 10 minutes to take a lead of 3-0 into the half.
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Stewie Tinajero added the second goal in the 28th minute, and Collin Nolen fired a missile from beyond the 18 for the third score.
New Albany would get on the board again shortly after intermission off Angelo Patino’s goal.
Grayson Alexander became the fifth player to score for New Albany with his score in the 51st minute.
Henry Hernandez hit a shot in the 62nd minute, and Nolen added his second goal to end the contest in the 66th minute with the 7-0 winner. The Panthers finish the season with an 11-11-1 record.
Last Monday, (G): Amory 1, Kosciusko 0
The Lady Panthers also picked up a second-round playoff win over Kosciusko last Monday. Mylie Williams scored the lone goal of the night with 16:30 left in the second half.
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Last Tuesday, (B): Amory 3, South Pontotoc 2
The opportunities for goals came early and often for both squads. Senior Lucas Vineyard picked up his first two saves of the night in the first and fifth minutes. After an Amory free kick, the Cougars Zac Moore and Chris Figueroa counterattacked, but Figueroa’s shot was just off mark.
Figueroa made a great run in the seventh minute and capitalized, putting the Cougars ahead 1-0. Vineyard kept the South lead after making a great recovery to get back in goal to pick up the save.
Amory’s JC Erikson opened up an opportunity for the Panthers with his run, fitting his shot just in the top right of the goal to tie the game at 1-1.
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In the 18th minute, right-back Ever Velasquez made a great recovery to block a shot and keep the game tied. Erikson fired off another shot in the 31st minute, but it just rolled right of the goal.
Figueroa almost gave South the lead, but his shot bounced off the top bar. In the 43rd minute, Jax Gibson fired a free kick to the box and scored to give Amory a 2-1 lead.
Erikson scored his second goal in the 63rd minute to extend the lead to 3-1.
South Pontotoc didn’t go away. Senior John Hedges threw a ball into Moore, who made a great cross into traffic to Figueroa.
Figueroa settled and fired to make the score 3-2 in the 71st minute. Moore sent a late free kick in the box to Figueroa, but Figueroa could not get a shot off. Amory held on to win 3-2.
