St. Aloysius picked up the defense in the second half, which helped the Flashes pick up a 4-3 win over Murrah Tuesday night.

The Flashes (4-1) got a pair of second-half goals from freshman Micheal Head to break a 2-2 tie, then shut down Murrah (1-3) heavyweight Amr Ali before he could deliver the knockout blow.

“Joe Theobald, Vincent Banchetti, Michael Engle and Blake Warnock played beautiful defense,” St. Al coach Shirley Agostinelli said. “They shut down No. 9 (Ali). I’m very pleased. We had good team defense, pretty passing … We’re really getting better as a team.”

The Flashes used teamwork to score their first two goals. It was Ali’s individual effort that tied it.

After John Theobald scored on a perfectly placed cross from Michael Strickland 12 minutes in, Ali answered with a breakaway after a direct kick to tie it at the 23-minute mark.

Nine minutes later, Strickland got the lead back for St. Al after a touch-pass from Head on a breakaway. With two minutes left in the half, Ali tied it with a rainbow kick from about the 25-yard sideline.

Ali, a speedster from Sudan, showed his ball-handling ability in the first half, weaving through defenders almost at will. But St. Al started denying him the ball in the second half. He got the ball fewer than a half-dozen times, and when he did, two or three men were there to stop him.

“It was frustrating,” Ali said. “They were double-marking me and the refs wouldn’t call anything.”

Head showed off some fancy footwork in the second half, working his way around a defender with a couple of fakes before booming in the go-ahead goal eight minutes into the second half. At the 26-minute mark, he took a pass from John Theobald to the goal.

“That was textbook,” St. Al assistant Bob Engler said.

Robert Ezell added a goal for Murrah on a penalty kick with less than 10 minutes to go, but Murrah never got another shot to try to tie it. It was the Class 1A Flashes’ second straight win over a bigger school. They beat 4A Terry Monday night, Murrah is 5A.

“We had control of the game,” said Agostinelli, whose team outshot the Mustangs 23-8, 14-2 in the second half. “The final score doesn’t show it, but we dominated.”

(G) VHS 3, Brandon 2

Brandi Parker’s breakaway goal with less than five minutes to play gave Vicksburg (3-1) a win over Brandon Tuesday night. Parker dribbled about 50 yards before beating goalie Amber Ferguson.

“We played very well,” coach Kevin Manton said. “We are still making mistakes and we can’t … against good teams.”

Courtney Chapman netted the only goal in the first half before being red-carded for an altercation with a Brandon player. The opposing player was also red-carded. Both teams played with 10 the rest of the game. Laura Johnston’s goal early in the second half gave Vicksburg a 2-0 lead, but Brandon bounced back with a pair to knot it.

VHS plays at Madison Central on Tuesday.

(B) Brandon 4, VHS 0

The Bulldogs outshot the Gators (2-2) 18-7, scoring two goals from 40 yards out in the second half. Jonathan Austin gave Brandon a 1-0 lead in the first half.

(Goalkeeper) Bobby McComas did a good job,” VHS coach Josh Harper said. “Those last two were impossible to save … that just depleted us mentally.”