HATTIESBURG – After winning a state soccer championship last season, the St. Patrick girls are aiming for a repeat this year.
The Fighting Irish look well-positioned to do just that after dominating Sacred Heart 4-0 Friday night in Region 8-I action at Klein Field. The victory clinched the region championship for St. Pat (11-1-1 overall, 6-0 region).
The Crusaders salvaged a split of the two games, besting the short-handed Irish 3-0 in the boys contest.
“This is the kind of team where once we direct them, they come right back and put that team effort in there to make it come together,” said second-year head coach Cassandra Terry. “I thought they did just that tonight.”
Terry’s Fighting Irish got a spectacular game from junior striker Anna Katherine Thriffeley, who scored her first hat trick of the season with three goals that showed off her versatility.
St. Patrick dominated play from the start, and Thriffeley got the Irish on the board in the sixth minute of play, knocking a free kick from sophomore Nora Mestayer that bounced off a defender and into the net.
Eight minutes later, Thriffeley scored again, bombing a rocket from the left side of the net 25 yards out that sailed into the upper right corner of the goal, well over the reach of Crusader goalkeeper Brooklyn Brown.
“We got a free kick, and I told one of my teammates to do a drop shot because it was too close,” said Thriffeley. “Usually when we that close, we slide over to the goal, so I did a drop shot and got a goal out of it.
“The second goal, I just looked up and saw it was open and took the shot.”
Thriffeley was the chief playmaker for St. Pat on this night, ranging from sideline to sideline and end-to-end.
“She’s a stupendous player,” said Terry. “She knows where to be and when to be there. The future is so bright for her, along with a bunch of these other young ladies.
“She’s not always supposed to be all over the place, but she has such a creative eye, that I don’t even see what she’s seeing. So I give her that creative ability to make the calls as she sees fit, and she’s great at directing the field.”
The Fighting Irish seemed to relax a bit after that with the 2-0 lead, and while they finished the first half with 11 shots, only three were on goal, including the two scores.
Things were different after halftime. The Irish had 14 shots in the second half and put eight of them on the frame, including a pair of goals.
“The first half, we started out fast and strong, but as the first half went along, it kind of broke down a little bit, we got a little bit slower,” said sophomore Bella Jordan.
“We had those talks in the locker room at halftime, figuring out what we needed to fix and what we needed to work on in the second half. We started playing a lot faster, using our wits and playing more through the middle.”
Jordan had the better of play for St. Patrick in the second half, with seven shots, including six in the period, and she found the back of the net in the 48th minute, taking advantage of a giveaway in the 18-yard box for an easy goal.
“You have to keep pressing, keep the pressure on,” said Jordan. “And we had a lot more shots in the second half.”
While the Fighting Irish were pressing the pace in the front end, the back line did its job keeping Sacred Heart from any decent chances of sophomore keeper Samantha Johnson. The Crusaders only had two shots in the second half, and neither were on frame.
“Over the years, we’ve all worked together, practiced together, learned each other’s personalities, where they’re going to play the ball, and how to communicate with each other,” said senior center back Madison Kostmayer.
“We talk, we know each other well and we know how to pass the ball to each other. I think we have a good chance to repeat as champs.”
Thriffeley nailed down her hat trick in the 74th minute, showing off her skill with the ball at her feet, as she weaved through the defense for an unassisted goal from 15 yards out.
“That’s mainly what I practice, keeping the ball at my feet,” said Thriffeley. “We’ve been working hard, and we’re excited about the possibility of going back and winning another state title.”
St. Patrick is still a fairly young team, with only three seniors who play, and the Irish are hungry to add another trophy to the school’s display case.
“They do look very sharp right now,” said Terry. “If I have it my way, I think we’ll go right to the end again, and if they keep doing what they’ve been doing, I don’t see that being an issue.”
In the boys game, the Fighting Irish were plagued by misfortune before they ever took the field. St. Pat was down three starters with illness, including starting goalkeeper John Dreger.
And Dreger’s replacement, sophomore Cameron Broom was sent off in the 33 minute after getting tagged with a red card for a dangerous tackle, forcing the Irish to play the rest of the game a man down.
“They got the through-ball in there, and the keeper came out for the challenge,” said Irish boys coach Ryan Worsham. “(The referee) said he went studs-up, and that’s unlucky for us. The boys faced a lot of adversity, but I was happy with how we responded.”
St. Patrick was already behind 1-0 after Sacred Heart sophomore Grayson Smith lobbed a shot from 25 yards out that Broom had little chance of stopping.
“I was really happy with the first 10 to 15 minutes,” said Worsham. “We felt like we controlled the level of play. Got unlucky with the clearance and it fell right to their guy. A little bit of bad luck, a little bit of adversity. It was just one of those nights.”
After being pressed into emergency service, junior John Thomas Freeman acquitted himself nicely in goal through the rest of the first half and well into the second half.
And St. Pat continued to attack offensively, despite playing short-handed.
Sophomore striker Payton Taylor had two good chances at an equalizer early in the second half, one when he couldn’t get a good shot at an open net after Crusader keeper Hayes Burks fell down and the other in the 54th minute with a blistering shot on goal.
However, Sacred Heart’s pressure proved too much, as the Crusaders beat Freeman with a pair of goals after getting past the Irish backline for open shots on counterattacks.
Senior Henry Rouhbakhsh put Sacred Heart up 2-0 in the 60th minute, and freshman Elliott Boyette capped the scoring in the 67th minute.
St. Patrick dropped to 5-8-0 and 3-3, while the Crusaders improved to 6-2-1 and 4-1.
“It’s something we can take away from this,” said Worsham. “We’ll probably see this team again in the playoffs. The level was there, the intensity was there. I thought it was really good early. We just faced some adversity and bad luck tonight.”
