BY CALEB GARNER
Special to The Dispatch
STARKVILLE – Starkville Academy’s girls’ soccer team wants to be known as having a brick wall of a defense.
Behind a dominant defensive effort and a dynamic offensive output led by a hat trick by senior Sydney Passons, Starkville Academy (11-1-1) posted its 10th shutout of the season with an 8-0 victory against Bayou Academy of Cleveland in the opening round of the Mississippi Associatio of Independent Schools (MAIS) Class AAA playoffs.
First-year head coach Matt Sykes liked how his defense performed in the win.
“You can’t argue with a shutout,” Sykes said. “Defensively, that is what you want to try to get every time. Our defense is a brick wall and I am not worried if (opponents) get the ball back there because our center defense and our outside defense are going to protect our goalkeeper and even then our keeper will protect our defense.”
Senior defender Bonner Hughes’ and her fellow defenders’ goal for each game is to not let anything get past them.
“Before each game, the defenders and our goalie tell each other that we aren’t going to let anything past us,” Hughes said. “That is our goal. Today was a good start to postseason and it keeps up our momentum knowing that we are still getting shutouts.”
The Lady Vols were led in scoring by senior Sydney Passons, who netted a hat trick with goals in the 22nd minute, as well as a pair of scores off of her left foot in the 45th and 51st minutes of the contest. Her final goal came on an assist from fellow senior Shelton Spivey, despite the team’s passing early on was slower than desired.
“I think we started a little slow with our passing,” Passons said. “We talked about that at halftime and we started connecting our passes (in the second half). On my last goal, (Spivey) had a perfect pass and I was able to kick it in with my left foot.”
Spivey got the scoring barrage started with a goal assisted by Passons in the ninth minute and followed it up with her second goal of the night in the 31st minute. To go along with her hat trick performance, Passons also had two assists in the win. Also joining in with goals were senior Hannah Cuevas (45′) and sophomores Amber Bock (46′) and Aubree Campbell (61′).
The offensive and defensive success did not occur overnight by any means. With seven seniors on the roster who have played together for a while, Passons and Spivey feel that they often can read what their teammates are going to do before it even happens.
“We have played together for so long, we know what each other is going to do,” Spivey said.
Passons added, “A lot of times I know where (Spivey) is going to run, and she also knows where I am going to run.”
Sykes has also benefited from having his players already familiar with one another, and his seniors have helped him transition from being a player to being a coach.
“It gives us experience to look forward,” Sykes said. “It helped me understand the team better.”
SA will take on a familiar opponent in the MAIS AAA North Half title matchup in Indianola Academy, who defeated Kirk Academy 3-1 and a team that the Lady Vols have defeated twice this season. The match will be at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Starkville Sportsplex.
Passons and her teammates are confident going into their next match against the Indianola due to their familiarity.
“We have played them before, so we know what is coming.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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