Late winner ends Tupelo's upset bid against Madison Central
Dec. 7—TUPELO — Tupelo fought tooth and nail against an undefeated Madison Central squad, but the Golden Wave's upset bid unraveled abruptly as the end of the second half approached.
The Jaguars scored on a counter-attack with two minutes left in regulation to come away with a 1-0 win on Thursday night. Tupelo had chances of its own prior to Madison Central's late game-winning tally, but the Golden Wave came up just short in the end.
"That's the best we played all season," Tupelo head coach Shelley Miller said. "These girls, they fought for every ball in every spot. They had a huge challenge. This team that we just played against is — they're undefeated for a reason. They've got players in every position. They can take on anybody in the state."
The high-scoring Jaguars (9-0, 1-0 Region 2-7A) have had their way with opposing defenses so far this season, but Tupelo's center-back duo of Taylor O'Rear and Catherine Long held its ground. It wasn't until that late goal that Madison Central generated a dangerous chance.
"They held that offense," Miller said. "That offense has scored a lot of goals this year, and they did a great job holding them down."
Tupelo had a few chances to score, mostly off set pieces. None of them resulted in a goal, but the Golden Wave (4-4, 1-1) could have come out of Thursday night's game with a completely different result.
"Had a few chances that on another day may have gone that didn't go today," Miller said. "But bottom line, it was a hard-fought game, it was a good game, my girls gave it all they had."
This year's Golden Wave squad is a young one, fielding a starting lineup with a handful of freshmen and sophomores. But as the season has gone on, Miller's seeing progress, and Thursday night's effort was a promising step.
"Any time you can be in a game with Madison Central at the end of it and have a chance and have an opportunity, then you've done something right," Miller said. "They gave it everything they had. I thought we possessed well, I thought we dominated up top some. Our back line did a great job of containing their forwards because they've got some really good players."
(B) Madison Central 2, Tupelo 1: Tupelo fell behind 2-0 in the first half. Angel Perez cut the deficit in half on a penalty kick in the second half, but the Golden Wave couldn't find an equalizer. The Golden Wave are now 3-4 on the season.
