By Robert Wilson
The MAIS Division I boys soccer league this season is like the SEC West in college football, several great teams with loads of talent battling it out for the top spot.
Monday night was no different as Jackson Academy edged rival Jackson Prep 2-1 in overtime at Prep’s Patriot Field.
JA senior Nicholas Harris scored off a corner kick by junior Ben Jones with about two minutes to play in the first of two 10-minute overtime periods for the winning score.
It was the second overtime meeting between the two rivals this season. Prep defeated JA 1-0 on penalty kicks at JA earlier this year.
JA improved to 7-8 overall and 4-3 in league play. Prep dropped to 13-5-2 overall and 6-1 in league play. Defending state champion Hartfield edged Presbyterian Christian on penalty kicks Monday night. Hartfield is in second place at 5-2 and PCS dropped to 4-3 in a tie for third with JA.
Prep’s Jon Marcus Duncan – who is second in Mississippi history in combined boys and girls wins (822 in his 24 seasons at Prep) – believes this could be the toughest and tightest conference race he has ever seen.
“There is a lot of talent across the board, the teams are well coached,” said Duncan, who has won 28 state championships, 14 boys and 14 girls, in his career, all at Prep. “It is probably the most competitive this division has ever been.”
Prep defeated Hartfield on penalty kicks at Prep in its only meeting this season and will play against Feb. 8 in the last regular season game of the season.
JA coach Phillip Buffington – who was one of the best players in Mississippi history when he played for Duncan in the mid 2000s – agrees with his high school coach.
“This is as close as our league has probably ever been,” said Buffington, who has won four state titles (two girls and two boys) in his five seasons as head coach at JA and defeated Duncan for the first time since beating Prep for girls state title last fall. “On any given day if you don’t come ready to play and compete, anyone can beat you.”
Both JA and Prep were not at full strength Monday. JA was missing sophomore starter Sam Cox, who is out of the season with an arm injury, and junior starter Jacob Scarbrough sprained his ankle early in the game and didn’t return. Prep junior midfielder Elliott Davis broke his ankle last week and is scheduled to have surgery Thursday. Starting senior midfielder Cole Cress sprained his ankle this weekend and missed Monday’s game.
“The game was a battle for 100 minutes (80 minutes in regulation and 20 minutes in overtime),” Buffington said. “I thought for most of the game we defended well, but we struggled getting any real rhythm going forward so we had a lot of work ahead of us against a really good defensive group for Prep. We haven’t had a lot of breaks this year and had a couple go our way and were able to capitalize on both with goals.”
Sophomore midfielder Sam Sherman scored a goal to give Prep a 1-0 lead with 10 minutes to play in the first half.
Freshman Steven Hederman scored from about 30 yards out when his shot deflected off a Prep player and went into the right side of the goal to tie the game at 1-1 with 11:30 to play in the second half.
JA almost won in regulation when Jones’ shot skipped off the top of the crossbar on the last play to send the game into overtime.
“Our woes continued in attacking third and too many wasted opportunities,” Duncan said. “JA defended well and took advantages of their scoring chances.”
Both teams have three conference games to play before the playoffs start. The top two seeds receive first round byes.
