October 13, 2021
The No. 13 East Central Lady Warriors got revenge on the No. 12 Northwest Mississippi Lady Rangers on Tuesday afternoon with a 2-1 MACCC North Division victory. The win avenged a 3-1 ECCC loss to the Lady Rangers earlier in the season and moved the Lady Warriors to 8-3 overall and 2-3 in division play. The match sets up a huge match with the Itawamba Lady Indians this Friday, Oct. 15 in Decatur. The match is scheduled to kickoff at 1 p.m. at the East Central Soccer Complex.
"It was a really important win on the road to get three more points in divisional standings," said ECCC head coach Ryan Joiner. "An early game goal 37 seconds into the match set the tone for the first half and we played well, while the second half was just a pure gutty team effort and took everyone to find the winner from Kara and see the game out the last 20 minutes."
East Central could not have asked for a better start to the match as Sasha Clare (Belfast, United Kingdom) put the Lady Warriors on top 1-0 with a goal off a great Nicole O'Neill(Dublin, Ireland) pass. That score held into the second half as Olivia Clark (Decatur) made a great save in the first half on a potentially game-tying penalty kick. Eight minutes into the second half, the Lady Rangers got the equalizer.
With 25 minutes on the clock, ECCC's Kara Wager (Lucedale) gave the Lady Warriors the lead as she capitalized on another great pass O'Neill. Wager buried her fifth goal of the year to push the lead to 2-1. The Lady Warrior defense dug in the final portion of the game to halt the Lady Rangers attacks.
Friday's match against Itawamba has major MACCC implications. Fans that cannot attend the game can watch the match live at www.eccclive.com/gold.
