By Robert Wilson
Jackson Prep’s Jon Marcus Duncan has had many outstanding goalkeepers during his two and half decades of coaching soccer on Lakeland Drive.
But there aren’t many during his 25 years that have been any better than sophomore Mason McCain.
Said Duncan: “Mason has been a star since he stepped on the field.”
McCain and his defense were the stars once again Monday night as defending MAIS state champion Prep registered its ninth shutout this season with a 1-0 victory over rival Jackson Academy in a MAIS Division I battle for first place in front of an estimated 200 at JA’s Brickyard in Northeast Jackson.
Prep – playing without starting midfielder Ty Davidson – improved to 14-6 overall (with only three losses to Mississippi teams, one to MHSAA Class 7A Tupelo, MHSAA Class 1A St. Patrick and one to MAIS Division I rival Hartfield Academy) and 6-1 overall in Division I play. Prep defeated JA 2-1 on Jan. 9 to give JA its first loss after nine victories to start the season and it was the first time a team had scored a goal on JA’s all season.
JA dropped to 13-2-1 overall and 5-2 in league play.
McCain and Prep’s defense, led by seniors Chris Owen and Major Quin (an Air Force Academy football signee), and juniors Rhodes Morgan and Walker Dreher, controlled the back and didn’t let JA score.
This isn’t anything new for the 5-foot-8, 160-pound McCain. As a freshman last season, McCain and his defensive teammates had 13 shutouts, including a 4-0 victory over Presbyterian Christian School for the Division I state championship.
Championships aren’t anything new to Duncan either. After winning the Division I girls state title last fall, he has 30 state championships (15 girls and 15 boys) in his career. Duncan is also the winningest soccer coach in Mississippi history. He reached that mark this past fall, surpassing Karl Friedrich, who had held the record with 831 wins in 32 seasons at Harrison Central. With Monday night’s win, Duncan now has 859 wins (474 girls and 385 boys).
A lot of good goalkeepers helped Duncan roll up those wins, including guys like McCain.
“Mason has confidence in the net and directs the defense,” Duncan said. “He made a few great saves tonight. My assistant coach Tjay Busin is also the goalkeeper coach and he’s phenomenal with keepers. I owe so much to him. Our back line is solid. They have been good all year. They played great limiting JA’s chances. JA is very dangerous on a counter attack and they really put pressure on you with deep throw ins. It was a battle. The JA and Prep rivalry is always special, especially at the Brickyard. Our energy tonight was special. It was gut check time for a few of our players with injuries. (Senior forward) Thomas Werne and (junior midfielder) Worth McGehee and weren’t at 100 percent but they played great. I thought they responded really well.”
Junior Jetson Hollingsworth delivered a great ball off a corner kick and senior Elliot Davis headed it into the right corner of the goal for the game’s only score with 12 minutes to play in the game.
It was another matchup between coach and player with Duncan and JA coach Philip Buffington, who was on Duncan’s first team in 2000 as an eighth grader, helped Prep to four straight state titles, set a Mississippi record with 61 goals in his senior year, and was an assistant coach for Duncan in 2010.
“I wasn’t sure we could play much worse than the first game at Prep but last night we made so many mental and physical errors and were just plain lazy defensively throughout the game with our responsibilities,” said Buffington, who has won four state titles (two girls and two boys) in his six seasons at JA. “Jamison Graham played well again in goal for us, but we had far too many letdowns tracking runners and challenging balls in the air to have won that game. The back four (Gus Summers, Jacob Scarborough, Graves Harraway, and Anderson Abide) were relatively solid throughout the game. McNeil Harraway moved back halfway through the first half when we had yellow card trouble with Jacob and Anderson. We were not good on attacking or defending set pieces and thankfully were able to stay 0-0 for a lot of the game with some of the chances they had on their attacking set pieces. Prep played at a level most of the game our guys just didn’t match, and they 100 percent deserved the result last night.”
