Confidence boosting win.

"I'm proud of our team and the way they came out and handled themselves," said Northeast Jones head girls soccer coach Brooke Zugg Thursday night. "Our girls came out, preserved, and got a big win.

Northeast Jones beat South Jones 3-1 in girls' soccer for the first time since 2015.

Zugg challenged her team before the match.

“I challenged them to give me their best game,” said Zugg. “I also told them I’d be proud of them no matter the outcome.

“These girls surpassed everything I could have asked them to do.”

Leading 1-0 after the first 40-minute half, eighth-grader Cally Lewis pushed Northeast Jones ahead 2-0.

South Jones cut the Lady Tigers’ lead to one, 2-1, on a goal by Christina McMullen shortly after.

Graison Holder, another Lady Tigers eighth-grader, capped off the match with her second goal to push Northeast Jones back in front two goals.

"I told our girls going into halftime," added Zugg, "that two minutes after someone hits the back of the net, whether it's you or the opposing team, one team is going to come back on fire, and the other is going to get a bit complacent. I told our girls that we couldn't get complacent.

“After South Jones scored that goal, I was afraid that we would get complacent. But they didn’t. They came back and scored that final goal.”

Zugg spoke about Holder's two-goal night.

"Holder played every position on the field that I asked her to," said Zugg. "She scored for us, she defended for us, she stopped goals for us, and she made plays for us. Even as an eighth-grader, she's a huge part of our team.

Northeast Jones improves to 4-1 on the season.

Boys Game

Northeast Jones knocked off its second county rival this week, beating South Jones 4-1 Thursday night after Tuesday night’s 3-1 win over Laurel.

“South Jones is a good team,” said Tigers head boys soccer coach Matt Reid. “They have good players all over the field, just like they do every year. Coach Gleason does a good job with them. But I think we wore them down a little in the second half.

"Any time you can beat West Jones or Laurel or South Jones in a year, it's a good year. Our kids are buddies with those kids or 'friend-enemies,' I guess you could say, so it was a good night and good win."

The first half wasn’t ideal.

"I couldn't put my finger on what it was in the first half," said Reid. "But we couldn't connect passes. That was the main thing. South Jones got after us in the midfield, and our defense looked sloppy. Then it was like something clicked."

Down 1-0 after the first 40 minutes, Northeast Jones netted four goals to earn win number three on the young season.

“We got goals from three different people,” Reid said. “I’ve coached teams before where one guy does all the scoring. And those teams seem easy to defend. But if you have three people that are scoring, that’s a big deal.”

Javion Ducksworth, as he did against Laurel on Tuesday night, led the Tigers with two goals off the bench.

“Javion has scored four goals this week in two games [against county rivals],” said Reid. “I don’t think he understands how big that is.”

Alex Gonzalez and Jair Hernandez added solo goals on the night.

Northeast Jones improves to 3-0 on the season.