By Staff
From staff reports
Feb. 7, 2001
Last season, the Meridian High girls' soccer team saw its dream of a Class 5A state championship come to a premature end in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs when the Lady Wildcats ventured to enemy territory at Northwest Rankin and lost a controversial decision.
Tuesday night, Pat Ross and his troops returned to Rankin County hoping to change their fortunes, and the Lady Wildcats did just that.
Meridian fought a tough home crowd at Brandon and played more than 100 minutes of soccer before coming away with a 2-1 win over the Lady Bulldogs in a shootout.
Meridian now moves into the MHSAA Class 5A South State championship game Friday at 4 p.m. at the Capital City Fields in Jackson, where the Lady Wildcats will take on 17-2 Harrison Central a 4-1 winner over Northwest Rankin Tuesday.
The loser goes home; the winner plays for the state championship Saturday at 11 a.m., at Clinton.
Meridian got an early goal from Erin Brown and led 1-0 at the half before Brandon tied it and the two squads played a pair of 10-minute overtimes with no goals to show.
Ross said seniors like Brown, Deanna Harris, Ramey Rush, Julie Pollman and Wendy Poole made the difference, mixing with future Lady Wildcat stars like Kelly Brown and Courtney Harris to produce the tough win.