Amory – Despite falling behind early, Amory showed poise and perseverance.
The Lady Panthers rallied from a two-goal deficit to force overtime and beat the South Pontotoc Lady Cougars 3-2 with a gold goal in the Class 4A state tournament quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon.
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Amory will face New Albany in the 4A North semifinals on Tuesday. The Panthers are going on a 12-game winning streak.
“They just embraced it and played hard,” Amory coach Nathan Clayton said. “They’ve been doing this all year.”
The rules are not enough to decide the outcome, and two overtime periods are not enough to decide the outcome. This led to five minutes remaining and the next goal decided the winner.
With about 1 minute and 30 seconds left in the game, Jane Kate Boykin received the ball in the open space on the left, ran upfield, and hit the ball into the lower right corner of the net to win the game.
“It was like, ‘Either I miss and we move on, or I make it and the game is over,'” Boykin said. “It was a good game. I’m glad it went in.”
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The Cougars (16-4) got on the board inside 15 minutes on a goal from Jannel Almazan. Three minutes later, Harper Rush scored twice to make it 2-0. Amory (17-6) had been running a three-man back line but added a fourth man after the second goal. This makes a big difference.
“We didn’t give up a shot after that. Not a goal or anything,” Clayton said. “So I think the defense is back to normal.”
Meanwhile, on offense, Mylie Williams gave the Panthers the lead with just over five minutes left in the first half. With 25 minutes left in the second half, Williams received a corner kick. Her kick knocked the goalkeeper away, eventually tying the score.
“I think everybody needs to take a deep breath,” Williams said. “Once we were able to do that, we just had to put the lens on the frame. I guess that’s what we did.”
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The loss for South Pontotoc ended one of its best seasons in recent memory. The Lady Cougars won their first district title in eight years and had won their 14th straight heading into Saturday.
“God has blessed our team 100 percent this season,” coach Cary Davis said. “We accomplished things this year that no one expected.”
Friday (B): New Albany 7, Amory 0
Emery held New Albany scoreless for 26 minutes, but the Bulldogs broke their scoring drought and earned a 7-0 Mercy Rule victory in the 4A quarterfinals.
Samir Peraza scored the first goal for New Albany, who scored three times in 10 minutes to take a 3-0 lead into halftime.
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Stevie Tinajero scored the second goal in the 28th minute, and Colin Nolen scored the third goal with a missile from outside the 18th line.
New Albany got on the board again shortly after halftime on a goal from Angelo Patino.
Grayson Alexander scored in the 51st minute, becoming the fifth New Albany player to score.
Henry Hernandez scored on goal in the 62nd minute and Nolen scored his second goal in the 66th minute to win 7-0. The Panthers finished the season with an 11-11-1 record.
Last Monday, (G): Amery 1, Kosciuszko 0
The Lady Panthers also defeated Kosciusko in the second round of the playoffs last Monday. Mylie Williams scored the only goal of the night with 16:30 left in the second half.
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Last Tuesday, (B): Amory 3, South Pontotoc 2
Scoring chances came early and often for both teams. Senior Lucas Wineyard made his first two saves of the night in the first and fifth minutes. After Emery took a free kick, the Cougars’ Zach Moore and Chris Figueroa fought back, but Figueroa’s shot went just wide.
Figueroa made a great run and scored in the seventh minute to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. Wineyard recovered well to get back in goal and made the save to keep Southern in the lead.
Emery’s Erickson run created an opportunity for the Panthers, and his shot hit the upper right corner of the goal to tie the score at 1-1.
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In the 18th minute, right back Ever Velasquez made an excellent recovery to block the shot and equalize the score. In the 31st minute, Eriksen shot again, but the ball slightly missed the right side of the goal.
Figueroa almost gave South the lead, but his shot bounced off the top bar. In the 43rd minute, Jax Gibson took a free kick into the penalty area and Amory led 2-1.
In the 63rd minute, Eriksen scored the second goal, extending the lead to 3-1.
South Pontotoc isn’t going away. Senior John Hedges passed the ball to Moore, who passed it to Figueroa.
In the 71st minute, Figueroa calmly shot to make the score 3-2. Moore sent a free kick to Figueroa at the last moment of the penalty area, but Figueroa failed to shoot. Amory held on to win 3-2.