Cameron Kent (Brandon) passes a ball out to a teammate (Karisa Watkins/PRCC Athletics).
POPLARVILLE, Miss. — The scoreline doesn’t show the battle that Friday night was for the No. 10 Pearl River men’s soccer team. Although the Wildcats scored first, they had to fight until the end to defeat Meridian, 3-0.
“What a game. I’m tired of playing against my former assistants. (Meridian head coach) Diego (Figueroa) does a great job over there,” head coach Drew Gallant said. “He’s turning that program around. Even though we scored first, they were all over us in the first half. We made some adjustments at half and it went well.”
Pearl River (7-2-1 overall; 4-0 MACCC) made a statement early against Meridian (4-4-3; 0-1-3), scoring an incredible 33 seconds into the match. A pass forward was chested down by Tiago Honorio Jr. (São Paulo, Brazil) and sent back out to Noah Fazal (Værløse, Denmark). The sophomore midfielder used a quick cut to get by a defender and fired a shot between a pair of defenders and into the net, 1-0.
“I saw him jump too early, cut to get past him and saw the space between the defenders,” Fazal said. “I tried my luck with a shot, and luckily, it went in.”
Despite PRCC jumping on the Eagles early, Meridian took it to the Wildcats for the rest of the first half, threatening throughout.
“My assistants Joe (Guinchard), Brandon (Butler), and Gavin (Taylor) did a good job of picking out some things that they were hurting us with, and we made some changes at halftime. Joe and Gavin figured out what we needed to do defensively, and Brandon saw a change with Emil that really turned things around for us.”
Pearl River finally got a little wiggle room in the 76th minute. Tycho van Haaren (Doetinchem, Netherlands) sent a through ball buzzing along the ground perfectly to the sprinting Emil Corfitzen (Copenhagen, Denmark). Shoulder to shoulder with a nearby defender, Corfitzen perfectly slotted a shot across the box and into the net at the far post to extend the lead, 2-0.
The final Pearl River goal came in the 85th minute, and what a strike it was. The Wildcats stopped a Meridian scoring chance and quickly embarked on the counterattack. Van Haaren sent a pass to Honorio Jr. about 15 yards away from midfield. After surveying the field in front of him, the forward started to dribble forward and realized that the Meridian goalkeeper had advanced too far from his position. As Honorio Jr. made it about five yards from the midfield stripe, the sophomore unleashed a left-footed shot while falling from roughly 62 yards out. The ball sailed through the air, heading straight for the net. The goalkeeper tracked back toward the goal, but it dropped over his head and into the net for an unreal finish, 3-0.
“That’s just what Tiago does,” his teammate Fazal said. “He does things that no one else can do. He saw the keeper was out and took the shot. That’s just what he does.”
“That’s Tiago. He’s just clinical,“ goalkeeper Cameron Kent (Brandon) said. “He’s one of the best players in this conference, if not the best.”
The Wildcats have now made it back-to-back clean sheets. They couldn’t have done it without Kent’s stellar play between the posts. The goalkeeper made nine saves on the night.
“I couldn’t do it without our defense,“ Kent said. “Game by game, we’re getting more comfortable with each other. Goalkeeping-wise, I’m getting more comfortable back there. I’m learning my role.”
NEXT UP
The Wildcats remain at the PRCC Soccer Complex on Sunday as National Park (Ark.) comes to Poplarville for a 2 p.m. match.
TICKETING
Tickets are on sale now at PRCCAthletics.com/Tickets. Tickets purchased in advance are $8. Tickets purchased on gameday are $10. Season passes can be purchased for $56.
TUNE IN
All Pearl River home soccer games are livestreamed for free at PRCCMedia.com/Gold. Fans who have Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV devices can also watch the Wildcat broadcasts by downloading the “Pearl River CC” channel from their app stores.
For the latest on Pearl River Community College athletics, follow us on X (@PRCCAthletics) and Facebook (PRCCAthletics).
