Teams eye showdown on local soccer fields

By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
June 27, 2003
The brackets are set and everything is ready to go in the men's soccer competition in the State Games.
The schedule for each team involved is already drawn out and all that is left to do is play it out to see who takes home the gold. The event will be held at Northeast Park on Saturday and Sunday.
The Master's (over-30) division lost a team from last year's competition, but should be very exciting to watch.
Meridian won the gold medal last year in the division, but couldn't totally fill out a team this year. A team made up of players from Meridian and Madison will compete for the gold, however.
Jackson won silver last year and could be considered a favorite for the gold this year. A team from Hattiesburg and a team from Pascagoula will also compete in the round robin competition.
After playing round robin on Saturday, the top two teams will play for the gold around 2 p.m. on Sunday. The other two teams will play for bronze.
The open division should also be very exciting. The division will be broken down into three brackets and some very good teams should be involved.
Meridian will be in bracket A with three other teams including Belhaven, the top-seeded team in the bracket. The two teams will face off at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning in a big match.
Bracket B will feature last year's gold medal winners, Clinton. Three other teams will join Clinton in the bracket.
The teams in Bracket A and Bracket B will play 35 minutes per half, but Bracket C will play 25 minutes per half because five teams are in Bracket C.
Brilla from Mississippi College is the seeded team in the five-team Bracket C. The teams will have to play four games on Saturday, but the time of each half should make the competition fair.
The three bracket winners and the best second-place team will compete on Sunday in the semifinals at 2 p.m.
The winners of each semifinal matchup will then meet in the gold medal games around 3:30 p.m.