There was no middle ground to give. It was a feast or famine like situation for the Northeast Jones’ boy’s soccer team.
Scenario No. 1 – beat West Lauderdale, win the Region 5-4A title and earn a playoff bid.
Scenario No. 2 – lose to West Lauderdale, finish third in region and miss the playoffs all altogether.
The Tigers feasted.
Northeast Jones defeated West Lauderdale 5-1 Tuesday night in “The Jungle” to claim their fifth straight Region 5-4A title and enter next week’s playoffs as a No. 1 seed. They will host Pontotoc in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs in the North division.
“We’ve been struggling,” said Tigers head coach Matt Reid. “We got a few guys back tonight who was sick with the flu. That was big for us.
“But the energy level [was high tonight]. I threw a lot of different things on our guys tonight. We moved some guys around to different positions, but besides that, they showed up.”
Click the link to see the full post-game interview w/ Coach Reid: https://youtu.be/ExBGXORLXFQ
Cole Sykes led Northeast Jones with two goals, scoring in the opening ten minutes of the first and second half.
“Cole has been scoring for us,” said Reid, “but lately he’s been in a slump. Tonight he had two for us. Both of the goals he gave us were momentum goals. That was huge for us.”
Jason Garcia, Alex Hentze and Corban Williams also netted goals for Northeast Jones.
“A lot of different people contributed tonight,” Reid added. “[And they did so] in more than just scoring goals. We won the midfield. Last Thursday night we got slaughtered in the midfield. So that was huge for us. Our guys deserved the credit tonight.”
West Lauderdale handed the Tigers a 4-0 loss last Thursday night which forced the feast or famine situation Tuesday night.
“I’m really at a loss for words tonight,” said Reid. “This was an all or nothing kind of night. If we lost, then we’d be at the house [next week]. This is not a program that is used to that, to be honest.
“We everything on the line, [our guys] were able to come out and be district champs.”
Hentze and Garcia aided with assist and keeper Jonathan Blackledge finished with two saves.
West Lauderdale’s lone goal came in the 66th minute of action.
Northeast Jones improves to 14-5-3 overall and finishes 6-2 in Region 5-4A.
