By By Matt Barrett/The Meridian Star
Dec. 19, 2001
After falling behind late in the first half, the Meridian High School boys soccer team fought back to take a 1-1 tie against visiting Hattiesburg High School at Ray Stadium on Tuesday night.
In girls action, the Lady Wildcats extended their Ray Stadium winning streak to 33 games as they blanked Hattiesburg 3-0.
In the boys game, the 3-6-1 Wildcats had control of the ball and tempo for the first half. Leslie Rush made several attempts on the goal, only to fall short. Rush tried to connect with Breck Cooper with 15 minutes left in the half, but Copper was denied by the HHS goalie Danny Tingstron.
With less than 10 minutes remaining in the first half, the Tigers would find the net. Kevin Myer connected with Stephen Medley on an impressive inbounds play. Wildcat Jay Barry had back-to-back shots at the goal late in the half, but was turned away both times. The Wildcats defense held the Tigers to one goal in the first half and Meridian went into the locker room down 1-0 at the break.
The second half of play was a hard-fought defensive battle. Meridian's Jay Crane led the Wildcats defense to hold Hattiesburg scoreless for the remainder of the game.
With less than two minutes remaining in the half, MHS' Andrew Gambrell found the goal for Meridian. The sophomore made a very athletic run to the goal followed by a screaming kick that was true.
Meridian girls 3
Hattiesburg 0
The 9-2 Lady Wildcats increased their record with a very impressive win over Hattiesburg.
Meridian found its first goal early in the game. Wildcat Kortney Harris connected with Jill Rush with only 4 minutes being played in the first half. Meridian scored its second goal with eight minutes remaining in the half. Kelly Brown's kick from Rush would be true. Meridian led at the half 2-0.
Kirsten Gambrell helped the Lady Cats defense to hold the Tigers scoreless in the first half,
The second half would be all defense for Meridian and Hattiesburg. Summer Brown came up just shy of the goal on several occasions. The Wildcats defense would not allow a Tiger goal for the remainder of the game. With less than three minutes remaining in the game, sophomore Kelly Brown scored the final Meridian goal. The Lady Cats went on to defeat Hattiesburg 3-0.