Crunch grabs gold from Clinton

By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
June 17, 2002
The Meridian Crunch beat Clinton 3-1 on Sunday afternoon to win the gold medal in Under-16 State Games of Mississippi soccer action at Northeast Park.
In girls Under-16 action, Singing River beat Laurel-Jones Co. in a best-of-three series to win the gold.
The boys competition was set up as a round-robin tournament with teams being awarded points for wins and ties.
Meridian beat Columbus 4-1 on Saturday and tied Northeast Jackson to put themselves in position to win the gold on Sunday.
With the win, Meridian beat out Columbus to take the gold.
Anthony Thomas, Deran Wilson and Andrew Gambrell each scored a goal in the game on Sunday to give Meridian a 3-0 lead over Clinton.
Clinton scored a goal late in the game on a penalty kick to make the final score 3-1.
Sonak was also quick to talk about his team's defense. The defense played strong the entire event and helped carry the team.
The Crunch defense, lead by keeper Scott Truesdale, included Tommy Edgerton, Ross McWilliams, Zach Chisolm and Jay Joiner.
Northeast Jackson ended the event with the bronze medal.
Singing River girls 3
Laurel-Jones Co. 0
Singing River finished off their best-of-three series with Laurel-Jones Co. by winning 3-0 on Sunday afternoon.
The two were the only teams competing in the Under-16 girls division.
It took Singing River three games on Sunday to beat Laurel-Jones Co. and win the gold.
Singing River got a goal from Brittany Lee to win the first game of the day and go up 1-0 in the series.
Haadi Likely scored a goal in the second game but the two teams tied 1-1 and had to play a third game in the series.
Likely, Nikki Scott and Danielle Morie each scored a goal to help Singing River take the 3-0 win.
Singing River scored a goal early in the game to take a 1-0 lead.
Then later in the half, Likely scored by knocking the ball in after a nice cross from the sideline.
Morie had a couple of close shots on goal for Singing River in the first half by was turned away by some nice goalkeeping.
Likely also had a breakaway shot that was saved.
Laurel could manage only a few runs on goal and Singing River held Laurel in the second half with tough defense.
The gold medal winners added another goal in the second half and held on the take the win.