by Anthony VanCourt, Contributing Writer
High school soccer teams across the Mississippi Coast continued their quest to lift the “golden ball” and claim their place as state champions. The quarterfinal match-up between the defending 5A State Champion Long Beach Bearcats (13-2-3) and the visiting South Jones Braves (14-2-2) would prove to be a back and forth battle from beginning to end.
The game would start slowly as each team looked to take advantage of some early possession but neither team could find the breakthrough. However, as time was winding down in the first half Long Beach began to get the upper hand.
The Bearcats’ best chance would come just before halftime with 7:52 remaining when Dylan Kippes used his speed to slip past a defender and was brought down in the box for an apparent penalty, but the referee would disagree and play continued.
Moments later South Jones would get their best chance of the half when a freekick was awarded to the Braves just outside the Long Beach penalty area for a handball. South Jones senior Giovanni Cruz would ultimately send the freekick just outside of the Bearcat goal leaving the game scoreless heading into halftime.
As the second half began, the Bearcats began to play with more purpose and dominated possession, keeping the ball on the South Jones side of the field for the majority of the half.
With 25:30 left in the second half Bearcat midfielder Vincenzo Jeanfreau found Landon VanCourt in space along the left wing who played a ball to Jason Marshall for the first-time shot, but South Jones goalkeeper Lane Steinweinder was equal to the task diving to his left to secure the save.
Ten minutes later, a Bearcat corner kick would find Alexander Mink who headed it back across where Landon VanCourt took the shot only to have Steinweinder make a great reaction save to keep Long Beach off the board.
South Jones would finally begin to see some possession as the game moved into added time when they pushed everyone high up the field hoping for that deciding goal forcing Bearcat keeper Liam Sartin to make three crucial saves to keep South Jones off the board.
With only minutes left of added time, the Bearcats would grab an opportunity from a defensive mistake by a South Jones defender when Long Beach’s Ethan LaBorde cleared the ball to midfield and the lone defender back misplayed the bounce allowing Jeanfreau to slip behind him.
Jeanfreau calmly chip the keeper from 30 yards out, sending the crowd into celebration and the Bearcats into the next round.
With the win, the Bearcats moved to 14-2-3 on the season and a chance to host the South State Championship game on Tuesday against their Region 7-5A rivals the Pearl River Central Blue Devils. This will be the 7th straight South State Championship game for the Long Beach Bearcats.
Tuesday’s South State Championship will be played at Long Beach’s Lumpkin-Magee Stadium although a start time has yet to be determined.
