ELLISVILLE, Miss. — It's been a season full of ups and downs for the Pearl River men's soccer team. The Wildcats have needed a statement win and got just that Friday night as they upset No. 5 Jones College 3-1 in Ellisville. PRCC snapped Jones College's 20-match MACCC unbeaten streak with the win. The last MACCC team to take down the Bobcats was PRCC on Oct. 12, 2021.

"We're trying to get things turned and headed in the right direction," head coach Drew Gallant said. "We're still dealing with some injuries. We made a few changes to the lineup. I thought (assistant coaches) Joe (Guinchard) and Brandon (Butler) had an excellent game plan with a few tactical and personnel changes. We capitalized on those small details, which paid off big for us tonight.

"This was a big win for us. We've struggled early on this season, and things are slowly starting to turn around."

MATCH RECAP
Jones College (9-2-2 overall; 5-1-1 MACCC) took the lead in the 22nd minute of the night. A ball intended for the Pearl River (4-4-3; 3-1-3) goalkeeper was poked away. JC grabbed possession and slid a pass to the center for a tap-in goal, 1-0.

The match's momentum quickly swung in PRCC's favor thanks to the Kristoff Graham (Clarendon, Jamaica; Clarendon College) show. In a span of two minutes, the newcomer pushed the Wildcats ahead with a pair of impressive goals.

The first came when Jones College was awarded a corner kick, and Pearl River executed the counterattack perfectly. The ball played into the box was sent out, and Christopher Dommer (Copenhagen, Denmark; Øregård Gymnasium) corralled it. He quickly rushed up the middle of the pitch before sending a perfect through ball to the sprinting Graham. The Jamaican tracked down the ball, dribbled to the right and just outside of the box, and blasted a shot across and into the left side of the net, 1-1.

Moments later, Joel Morales (Gulfport) had the ball just across the midfield line and saw Graham making a run yet again. He chipped a pass forward that found Graham. As soon as he caught up to the ball, the Jones College keeper rushed out to try and grab the ball. Graham quickly decided to sidestep the keeper and fired the ball into the open net to grab the lead in the 32nd minute, 2-1.

"What a big game from Kristoff. That's what we've been looking for out of him all year," Gallant said. "You can't coach speed, and he's got a lot of it. His speed up top should allow us to get him in behind lines. That's what we did tonight."

Jones College nearly snatched the momentum back in the 50th minute after earning a penalty kick. Saving a penalty is one of the toughest things to do in sports, but Noah Nymark (Farsoe, Denmark; Handelsgymnasiet Turoegade) was up to the task. He didn't give away his positioning too quickly and guessed the correct direction on his dive to make the save. 

"That was a great play by Noah to read it the whole way," Gallant said. "The Jones player was waiting on Noah to guess, and he never did. That play put momentum back toward us."

The big play by the goalkeeper seemed to swing the momentum fully back into the Wildcats' favor, and Barrett Breazeale (Hattiesburg; Sumrall) scored the dagger goal in the 75th minute. Dommer took a corner kick for the Wildcats and perfectly placed it for Breazeale to leap and head it into the back of the net, 3-1.

"That was his first regular-season goal, so it was great to get him on the scoresheet. It was a big game for him because a lot of his friends were playing on the other side."

UP NEXT
Pearl River will be off on Tuesday before returning to action on Friday for a road match at Meridian. The match will get underway at 7 p.m.

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