“Save your butt.”
That’s a noble sentiment for a defender in any formation.
But the key to stingy defenses — ones that can withstand attacks from the air or from the ground — are the ones whose members know how to protect themselves and their teammates with a singular focus: Don’t allow the opponent to score.
The New Hope High School girls soccer team’s defense of Kayla Smith, Bethany Vaughan, Abby Wilson, and Brooke Younger has found the right mix to make that happen. After giving up four goals to Vicksburg in the first half of their first-round playoff match, New Hope has allowed only one more goal in its past two matches. The Lady Trojans’ ability to cover for each other and to use their strengths to complement their teammates has been a driving force behind the program’s push to its first appearance in a state championship game.
“On defense, you have to rely on each other, New Hope coach Mary Nagy said. “These girls, even though they communicate on the field, they really don’t have to. That’s a tribute to them playing together so much. They know when one of them is going to rotate and one is going to overlap them.
“You have to bond and you have to know your teammates. They came in knowing how each other plays. That is a big advantage.”
New Hope (11-2-1) will take that step at 5:30 p.m. Saturday when it faces South State champion West Jones in the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A state title game at Clinton High School. New Hope defeated Lewisburg 2-1 on Wednesday to win the North State crown. West Jones (19-2-1), which is led by former Ridgeland High coach Craig Winship, beat South Jones 3-2 to advance to Saturday’s matchup.
New Hope lost to Ridgeland in the playoffs the past four seasons, including the past three years in the second round. Winship is in his second season as coach at West Jones.
New Hope snapped that skid this season by rallying to beat Vicksburg 5-4 in the first round. Effie Morrison scored four goals in the second half to send the Lady Trojans to the second round. New Hope needed to go to penalty kicks to eliminate Oxford 4-2 in a shootout. It then punched its ticket to Clinton by beating Lewisburg.
The defense had to weather one of its toughest tests of the season to get there. After scoring a goal in the final two minutes of the first half, Lewisburg pushed New Hope deep into its half of the field for nearly all of the final 40 minutes. Bolstered by the addition of Morrison at stopper and several key stops by goalkeeper Mackenzie Harvey, New Hope’s defense held. Smith, Younger, and Wilson have been playing together since they were 8 years old. They got their start with the Columbus United Division II team as defenders. All three agreed Thursday that chemistry has been a key to their success.
“I think we have been playing together so long that you start learning each other,” Smith said.
“… And you know what each other is going to do,” Younger said.
“And we don’t even have to talk and we know what the other person is going to do. We know they are going to have our back,” Wilson said.
The addition of Vaughan, who didn’t start playing soccer until the ninth grade, has given New Hope depth. Instead of playing a traditional 4-4-2 formation, which features four defenders, New Hope has used a three-back defense ever since Nagy has been coach of the team.
This year’s defense is the combination of a variety of skills. Smith, who plays center back, typically is the most aggressive defender. Against Lewisburg, she helped take charge by stepping to numerous 50-50 balls and clearing them away before trouble could happen. She also is one of the team’s captains and has been a stabilizing presence for the past few seasons.
Wilson feels she knows how to take angles and how to position herself in front of the goal to disrupt offense. Younger, who joked she talks all of the time, said communication is her strength, which helps everyone know when to step up to draw the opposing team offsides or when to shift to compensate for one of their teammates. Vaughan, a former cheerleader, balances Smith’s aggressiveness with a patience that has come from learning not to lunge at the ball.
Mixed together, the combination has proven to be effective because they all realize they need each other to be the best they can be.
“We all have different things that add up to something we all need,” Vaughan said.
Said Younger, “We all will help each other. Kayla is more go at it than I am. I am more chill, but Kayla will always have my back. If I mess up, it is not a big deal because I can count on Kayla.”
Nagy agrees the Lady Trojans complement each other really well. She said it has been a maturation process for the group to feel comfortable with each other’s strengths. She said the “pieces of the puzzle” have come together nicely because they all have been willing to cover for the others and to protect their collective butt.
“We preach all 11,” Nagy said. “You’re defenders and you’re offense. You have to defend if you don’t have the ball. It is our mentality. Everybody plays defense.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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