POPLARVILLE, Miss. — Last week, the No. 12 Pearl River women's soccer team felt like it lacked physicality in its pair of road matches. The challenge to the team before Tuesday's meeting with Southwest was to up the level, and the Wildcats did just that, defeating the Bears 4-1.

Tuesday night also served as Sophomore Night for the women's program.

"Last week, we kind of got kicked in the teeth," head coach Henrik Madsen said. "We knew we had to come up with a good response. Southwest is organized, and they're physical, so you have to match that, or it's a difficult game."

"The challenge was to be a little more physical, and I think they were much better. There's nothing better on Sophomore Night than sophomores scoring three of our goals."

MATCH RECAP
Pearl River (8-3 overall; 4-2 MACCC) and Southwest (2-9; 0-6) wasted no time getting on the board. The Wildcats struck first in the 2nd minute as Ann Maris Ragan (Flowood; Hartfield Academy) received a pass at the top of the box, cut inside, and fired into the right side of the net. Two minutes later, SMCC equalized, cashing in on a Wildcat mistake and sending a ball off the fingers of Celine Grothe (Lübeck, Germany; Carl-Jacob-Burkhardt) that slowly rolled into the back of the net, 1-1.

Just before the half ended, Pearl River retook the lead. Jessica Lawrence (Ocean Springs) played a ball into the box for Ragan. She got a good touch on the ball, fended off a defender, and turned inside before firing across the net for the goal, securing her brace in the process, 2-1.

"She's usually not a holdup type of player. She does have that in her skillset, though. She's big enough and strong enough that she can hold up play. She's good on that turn and has done it several times in practice. She was calm and composed and slotted it home instead of smashing it."

The 67th minute gave Adele Mooney (Lafayette, La.) a golden opportunity to score. She had a breakaway one-versus-one, but her shot across goal was saved by the SMCC keeper. Mooney made sure to make the most of her next goal-scoring opportunity. After a scramble in front of the net, Mooney eventually tacked down the loose ball and sent it into the back of the net to increase the lead to 3-1. 

Pearl River's final goal of the night came courtesy of Marieke Faber (Britsum, Netherlands; Leeuwarder Lyceum) in the 87th minute, and what a goal it was. The Wildcats were awarded a corner kick, and Faber ran over to take it. Rather than playing the ball into the box, she bent it into the net and over the head of the keeper for a goal, 4-1.

"I tried to attempt the shot at the far post so that either it would go in by itself or someone would only have to tap it home," Faber said. "The keeper was upfront in the goal, and there were not a lot of defenders, so there was space."

"We practice it," Madsen added. "We put players in there, so it's chaos for the goalkeeper. We now have players who can put it on frame. I was a really good corner, and the keeper just couldn't handle it."

UP NEXT
Pearl River returns to action on Friday as they travel to Ellisville to take on rival Jones College. The match will begin at 5 p.m. and can be viewed at JCBobcats.com/Watch.

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