By By Ryan Satcher/staff writer
Jan. 12, 2002
West Lauderdale used two goals by Josh Murphy to defeat Meridian 3-1 in boys soccer action at Ray Stadium on Friday night.
The Knights scored two goals in the second half to survive a very physical ballgame and move to 11-4 on the season.
Both teams had early opportunities to score. After a few Wildcat threats, West Lauderdale just missed an early goal. A throw-in by C. Jay Fountain was headed by Murphy just wide of the goal.
Meridian came back and had a chance when Andrew Gambrell's throw-in got loose in the box. The Knights were able to clear the ball away in time and the game remained scoreless.
Then West Lauderdale took advantage of a Wildcat miscue to score its first goal of the game. Brandon Rodgers stole an errant pass and after a few dribbles made a great pass to Fountain. The ball bounced off of the goalie and over to Murphy who put it in the open net to make the score 1-0.
Meridian didn't take long to answer back and got a penalty kick when Peter Davidson was taken down in the box. Leslie Rush took the kick and beat the goalie to tie the score up at one.
The half ended with no more scoring, but both teams had a couple of good chances. The Knights just missed a goal when Anthony Thomas passed to Fountain who took a couple dribbles and ripped a shot that went off the post. Chance Keeley then settled the loose ball and took a good shot that went just wide.
Meridian came back and had a good chance when Rush's free kick went long to Breck Cooper. Cooper and West Lauderdale goalie Tyler Skelton slid for the ball and the collision sent the ball away from the goal where it was cleared out by the Knight defense.
West Lauderdale got an early goal in the second half when Rodgers sent the pass through to Murphy who beat the charging goalie to make the score 2-1.
Later in the half, Fountain just missed a goal when he headed a Will Moseley pass just high. The Knights kept pressuring the Meridian goal and got a penalty kick minutes later. Moseley's blast was saved by goalie Chris Kitchens, but the ball bounced back to Moseley and he put the ball away for the goal to extend the lead to 3-1.
Murphy just missed a hat trick later in the game when his shot went off the post. Meridian had a great chance late in the game to cut the lead to one when it got a penalty kick. The kick went high and over the goal and the Knights finished out the game to get the 3-1 victory.
Meridian drops to 4-10-2 on the year and will travel to play Brandon Tuesday.
West Lauderdale will host Clarkdale at 6 p.m. on Monday in a key division game.