The Ridgeland High School girls soccer team didn’t want any margin for error Saturday night.
The Lady Titans made sure their season would continue with an onslaught that left the New Hope Lady Trojans with little room to do much of anything.
Haley Britt and Shannon Locke each had three goals as Ridgeland rolled to a 10-0 victory against New Hope in a Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A North State second-round match.
“We caught New Hope on an off night,” Ridgeland coach Craig Winship said. “We got a couple of goals quick, and I think that hurt a little bit.”
With the victory, Ridgeland (19-2-1), the 2011 Class 5A runner-up to West Jones, will advance to play Oxford, which beat Starkville 2-0, on Tuesday in the North State title game.
New Hope (13-5-3) saw its season come to an end at the hands of Ridgeland for the third consecutive year. In 2010, Ridgeland earned a 6-0 victory. Last season, Ridgeland won 4-2 in Columbus.
“We talked about what to expect, their speed and their great possession of the ball, and how to handle that,” New Hope coach Mary Nagy said. “We talked about if we could come out strong and hold them for the first few minutes and build some of that confidence that they would be OK. The girls weren’t intimidated. They came out in good spirits. But the passes to the middle and just not clearing the ball where it should have been played a role in the first three goals.”
This time, the Lady Titans didn’t give the Lady Trojans room to dream. Britt scored in the fifth minute on the third shot after goalkeeper Mary Margaret (20 saves) made the initial two stops, including the second one when she was still on the ground. Rachel Harris added the second goal in the 12th minute after New Hope failed to clear the ball in the face of an all-out attack.
Britt’s second goal on a right-footed shot to the lower left corner made it 3-0 before Locke scored her first goal on a high shot to help close the scoring in the first half.
Ridgeland used its speed and diagonal passing to maintain the pressure in the second half. The Lady Titans limited New Hope to one shots in each half and held a 35-2 edge in shots.
“We have only lost one senior (from last year), and after Christmas we have been clicking well,” Winship said. “We haven’t allowed a goal since the middle of December, and the kids are playing hard for one another.”
Ridgeland won state titles from 2003-08. It lost to West Jones in 2009 before winning its seventh state championship in 2010. It fell short again last season, but Winship feels the pieces are in place for his team to make another strong claim for a title.
“I feel good about the direction the team is going,” Winship said. “West Jones is a gigantic bump in the road, and they still have to play East Central. … I feel we will do well against Oxford. I don’t know if we will pull a win out, but I am confident if our girls play like they did tonight that we will be fine.”
New Hope loses five seniors from a squad that will largely remain intact next season. The continued maturation of young players gives Nagy plenty of reason to be optimistic that her program will learn what it takes to give Ridgeland a better match.
“It is a sad day. This is the third year in a row they have put us out,” Nagy said. “But they are a great team. It is not over. We will back.
“Anytime you take a team that is full of eighth-, ninth- and 10th-graders with five seniors and one junior on the field, it is a step because these young girls have not played in this high caliber of a game. For some of them, it was too fast of a game. They have never come up against that kind of speed. It is a step in the right direction because when it is their turn, and their turn is coming, they will be more prepared than this team because they have played in this game at such a young age.”
Winship agreed.
“Mary has done a fantastic job,” Winship said. “She has this program going in the right direction. There is no doubt about that.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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