By Robert Wilson
The Jackson Academy girls soccer team, with an experienced group of 15 seniors, finished their careers on top with a 2-0 victory over Madison-Ridgeland Academy for the MAIS Division I championship before an estimated 750 Monday night at JA’s Brickyard in Northeast Jackson.
Junior Cady Gilmore and senior and Holmes Community College signee Izzy Scott scored one goal each in a three-minute span in the first half and junior goal keeper Avery Buchanan and the Lady Raiders defense registered their ninth consecutive shutout and 14th of the season to lead JA to the championship victory.
JA finished 16-4-1 and won its 14th straight game. The only loss to an MAIS team was a 3-1 decision to Hartfield Academy in the first game of the season. JA tied Jackson Prep 1-1 in the second game of the season. JA avenged both the loss to Hartfield and the tie to Prep with 2-0 wins over Hartfield in the North Regional championship game and Prep in the Division I semifinals. The other three losses were to out of state teams in a tournament at Foley, Ala. JA won its seventh state championship in school history. Coach Nic Henderson led JA to its first state championship in 2009, coach Robert Gardner guided JA three straight titles from 2016-2018 and current coach Phillip Buffington led JA to state crowns in 2021, 2023 and now this season.
This year was the 11th consecutive season that JA has played in the state championship game.
The championship game was a rematch of a regular season battle between the two teams. JA edged MRA 2-1 April 7 at JA.
MRA finished 18-3-1 with two losses to JA. MRA’s only other loss was to an out of state team in the tournament at Foley. MRA was in the championship game for the first time since 2017 and was trying to win its second state title in school history. MRA won its only state title in 2012.
Gilmore took a pass from Ella King and got free on the right side of the field and kicked a high ball over the outstretched hands of the MRA goal keeper into the far corner for JA’s first goal at the 18 minute mark to play in the first half. Then three minutes later, Scott took a header from an MRA player, settled it in front of the MRA goal, and kicked into the net for a 2-0 JA lead.
This was Buffington’s fifth state title, three girls and two boys, in his seventh season at JA. Buffington, who was an assistant for three years before taking over for Gardner, is considered one of the top boys players in Mississippi history. He set a Mississippi record with 61 goals his senior season for Prep in 2005. He led the Patriots to four straight state titles and was an eighth grader in former longtime Prep coach Jon Marcus Duncan’s first year at Prep. Buffington played one year at Marshall University then three years at Mississippi College. He played three years of pro soccer, two in the United States and one in Australia. He has been coaching club soccer with the Mississippi Fire, now Mississippi Rush, since 2012 and was head coach at Manchester Academy in Yazoo City from 2013-2016 before coming to JA in the fall of 2016.
“I’m really proud of how the girls started and maintained the energy from start to finish last night,” said Buffington, who was assisted by Madi McNair Scott. “We’ve struggled occasionally with slow starts, but that was not the case last night. Having so many seniors, it made my job easy as a coach with the effort and intensity they brought on the field and from the sideline as leaders. Finishing the second on a run of nine games without conceding a goal was incredible with how well our backline and keepers played all year. We certainly made their life more comfortable than it had been in a couple of previous games, but bringing high energy and being better in front of the goal to get out and score two in the first half. Mylee Maurer, Ebbie Barbour, Maid Brewer, and Caroline Quin were the anchors to the nine straight clean sheets. Avery Buchanan played great in goal last night and throughout the playoffs as well.”
King, a Northwest Mississippi Community College signee, led JA with 20 goals this season. Scott had 11.
“I’m very proud of my girls at MRA,” third-year MRA coach John Kohoe said. “A game like that comes down to the smallest details in tiny moments. Sometimes the moments go for you and some against you as a team. It’s sports, it’s why we love and hate the game at times. The result doesn’t define how good we believe our squad is. We will learn from those moments and continue to mature as a group. We’ve got a very strong group returning that have played a lot this year. I’m going to miss our seniors, their parents and the support they have given us to run our program. Our girls played their heart out and left everything out on the field. I am so proud of them for not only their achievements on the field, but also how they carried themselves off the field. They were great representatives of their parents, the team and Madison-Ridgeland Academy.”
MRA was led in scoring this year by freshman Blair Britt with 19 goals, junior Ellie James Kirk with 12 goals and junior Rileigh McInteer with 11 goals. The Lady Patriots had 21 different players who scored goals this season. MRA had 13 shutouts this season, led by freshman keeper Maddy Holley and senior keeper Margaret Ann Hollis and defensive players, senior Lucy Davis, junior Anna Stephens, and sophomores Everlee Overton and Katelyn Edwards.
