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Porter's Chapel Academy's Grayson Price works the ball during Monday's game against Central Hinds. Price scored a goal, but Central Hinds beat PCA 7-2. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Cade Cantin plays the ball during Monday's soccer game against Central Hinds. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy soccer player Jackson Blackmon throws the ball in during Monday's game against Central Hinds. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Central Hinds' Owen Smith, left, and Porter's Chapel Academy's Hunter Simms fight for possession of the ball during Monday's soccer game at Key City Park. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Grayson Price takes a free kick against Central Hinds. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy keeper Carson Hays follows through on a punt during Monday's game against Central Hinds. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Central Hinds' Mason Copeland tries to dribble around Porter's Chapel Academy's Grayson Price (22). (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Conley Johnston controls the ball as teammate Auston Moore looks on during Monday's soccer game against Central Hinds. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter’s Chapel Academy’s soccer team has enough inherent challenges this season that there are bound to be bad days and good days.

Monday was one of the good ones.

The Eagles did not beat Central Hinds. They lost 7-2, in fact. But they did generate some offense, scored twice, had solid goal keeping and made some encouraging progress as they headed into their holiday break.

PCA won’t play again until Jan. 8 at Clinton Christian.

“I loved it. They were making the runs, they were passing the ball, they were trying to find the space to make the goals. They were taking the one-touch shots. They were being brave,” PCA coach Rebecca Sigh said. “Tonight, on defense, they also played to get the offsides. That’s something we’ve worked on all week.”

PCA (0-2) only has 13 players on its roster, half of whom have not played soccer before this season. It is also a co-ed team playing in a boys’ league, and four of its players are girls.

Sigh said the focus right now is on turning athletes into soccer players by teaching the skills unique to the sport, and she saw some positive signs there. The Eagles lost 10-0 to Manchester Academy in their opener. Although they trailed from the second minute on against Central Hinds, they hung in until the whistle sounded at the end of full time.

“Watching them step to the ball, watching them trap the ball, watching them talk and make passes and not just kicking it, is what we want to see. I absolutely saw that tonight,” Sigh said.

Central Hinds’ Cason Macke scored on a rebound in the second minute, scored again in the 13th, and completed his hat trick off an assist from Price Foil in the 23rd.

Foil got a goal of his own in the 35th minute to give the Cougars a 4-0 lead at halftime. He also scored in the 56th and 64th minutes in the second half for his own hat trick.

Central Hinds took 27 shots on goal. PCA keepers Carson Hays and Conley Johnston combined for 13 saves.

“I think the first time, nerves got to us and Manchester is a good team. That was a bad team to start the opener with. We’ve just been coming to practice and locking in, and teaching each other a little bit more,” Johnston said.

The Eagles only took five shots, but that was a huge step forward offensively after their lopsided opener.

Grayson Price took a penalty kick late in the first half that was stopped by Central Hinds keeper Dylan Williams. Then, early in the second half, Coley Potter — one of the four girls on the roster — ricocheted a shot off a defender and into the net for the team’s first goal of the season.

In the 66th minute, Price collected a turnover at the top of the box, juked the keeper and scored for a more traditional goal.

Johnston said it was “fun” to see the Eagles generate some scoring chances.

“It’s enjoyable,” he said. “It sucks when the ball is just on your side the whole time. To be able to go back and forth with a team like that, it’s fun.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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