Tycho van Haaren takes a free kick (Grace Kesler/PRCC Athletics).
SENATOBIA, Miss. — The No. 11 Pearl River men’s soccer team saw a 3-0 first-half advantage dwindle but finished strong in the second half to take down Southwestern Illinois 5-3.
“We got off to a good start, and they battled back,” head coach Drew Gallant said. “They did a good job of opening us up by playing the ball to their target man in the middle. We made some adjustments at halftime with our personnel, and that was the difference.
“Bryton Dupuy (Bay St. Louis; Bay) and Julio Martinez (Hattiesburg; Oak Grove) brought a lot of energy to the midfield and really changed the match in the second half. They did all we asked of them today.”
Pearl River (2-2-1 overall) came out of the gate on another level against Southwestern Illinois (2-3), using defense to create its offense just 18 seconds into the match. PRCC won the ball in the midfield and pushed it upfield with Tycho van Haaren (Doetinchem, Netherlands). The freshman slotted a ball across the box to Tiago Honorio Jr. (São Paulo, Brazil), and he put it into the back of the net, 1-0.
The Wildcat advantage doubled in the eighth minute. In Noah Fazal‘s (Vaerloese, Denmark) return to the lineup, he immediately created a goal for the Wildcats. The midfielder sent a good pass to Emil Corfitzen (Copenhagen, Denmark) and then drove defenders away from the goal with his movement to help create Corfitzen’s goal, 2-0.
Fazal and Corfitzen linked up again for the next goal in the 10th minute — this time with Corfitzen picking up the assist and Fazal earning the goal. The solid linkup made the score 3-0.
Despite finding themselves in a large early match deficit, SWIC battled all the way back to even things up before the halftime whistle sounded, 3-3.
During the halftime break, Gallant encouraged Corfitzen and Honorio Jr. to eye each other more with passes, and the duo put that right to work in the second half. Corfitzen beat two players on the wing and played a perfect ball into the box for Honorio Jr., who turned in the box and beat his defender 4-3.
Pearl River’s Brazilian connection helped PRCC pick up its final goal of the match in the 74th minute. Pedro Trindade (São Paulo, Brazil) found Honorio Jr., and the All-American from a season ago finished it off to make the scoreline 5-3.
NEXT UP
The Wildcats head back to Senatobia on Friday for a 3 p.m. match against No. 14 St. Louis. There will be no livestream for the match.
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