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Warren Central's Allie Mason (12) tries to get past Neshoba Central defender Ella Elliott (3) during Tuesday's game. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central's Brooke Steed (8) and Neshoba Central's Hailey Kirkland (12) battle for the ball during Tuesday's girls soccer game at Viking Stadium. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central's Addison Keller kicks the ball during Tuesday's girls soccer game against Neshoba Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central's Kennedy Smith (4) plays the ball against Neshoba Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central's Kylie Hearn (21) and Neshoba Central's Madelyn Collins compete in Tuesday's girls soccer game at Viking Stadium. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central goal keeper Jamarian Shelly warms up before the start of Tuesday's game against Neshoba Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central soccer player Duke Esparza (24) tries to stay warm while warming up before Tuesday's game against Neshoba Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central soccer players, from left, Jackson Holden, Ebrahim Shuaibi and Luke Bond mug for the camera before the start of Tuesday's game against Neshoba Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central goal keeper Anthony Streif warms up before the start of Tuesday's game against Neshoba Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central got a tough reminder that lucky — or at least fortuitous — bounces are sometimes the difference between winning and losing.

Neshoba Central’s Halle Faith Copeland bounced a corner kick through Warren Central’s defense in the 56th minute, and it stood up as the game-winner as the Lady Rockets won 1-0 in a girls’ soccer game Tuesday at Viking Stadium.

Copeland’s corner kick was a low, squirrelly line drive that bounced three times, each time somehow avoiding the players clustered in front of the goal, before taking a sideways hop past keeper Hayleigh Simmons.

“It’s one of those things that when you get a corner kick like that, sometimes it happens,” Warren Central coach Jeremy Lawrence said. “Sometimes it gets confusing. People aren’t sure who needs to step up and get it. Sometimes it takes lucky bounces, hits off people’s legs. It’s part of the game.”

Copeland’s goal was the only one in an otherwise even game. Each team had a handful of scoring chances and they traded the momentum back and forth. Simmons and Neshoba keeper Sayda Posey had eight saves apiece.

Warren Central pressed to the end and has two shots on goal in the last two minutes that Posey stopped.

“They did have a very good game plan going into it. They kept it to where we had very limited options to attack. We needed to make the most of it and we didn’t. That’s what it comes down to,” Lawrence said.

Neshoba Central’s win changed the landscape of the MHSAA Region 2-6A championship race. The Lady Rockets (11-3-3, 4-1 Region 2-6A) pulled into a tie for first place with Warren Central (14-4, 4-1). Ridgeland (7-7, 4-1) also only has one loss in the region.

The teams will play again Jan. 17 at Neshoba Central, and each has one game left against Ridgeland. Lawrence said the Lady Vikes still control their path to the region title, although their margin for error is now gone.

“If we go up there and win, and we beat Ridgeland next week, then we’re still good. It’s a speed bump. It makes it to where we can’t make mistakes,” Lawrence said. “We’re in kind of the same boat we were in last year. You can lose one and be OK. You can’t lose two. Then it starts getting a little cloudy. That just puts us a little more under pressure.”

Boys
Warren Central 3, Neshoba Central 0
Jacob Porter scored two goals, Ebrahim Shuaibi added another, and Warren Central’s boys soccer team closed in on the Region 2-6A championship by shutting out Neshoba Central (8-8, 3-2 Region 2-6A) on Tuesday.

Shuaibi scored the Vikings’ first goal on a penalty kick in the 19th minute. Porter scored a conventional goal five minutes later for a 2-0 lead that they took into halftime.

Porter’s second goal, off an assist from Luke Bond, came in the 61st minute and served as the clincher.

Warren Central outshot Neshoba Central 25-1, with a 15-0 advantage in shots on goal.

Warren Central (14-1-2, 6-0) remained unbeaten in its last eight games, with seven wins and one tie, and moved within one more victory of its second consecutive region championship.

The Vikings will go on the road to Ridgeland on Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 7:15 p.m., and can clinch the region title by winning that game. They’ll also host Richland on Saturday, with the girls varsity game at 1 p.m. and the boys at 3.

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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