ITTA BENA, Miss. -- It was one of the most impressive comebacks in school history.
With just 10 minutes left in regulation, the Mississippi Valley State soccer team rebounded from a 3-0 deficit Sunday afternoon against Prairie View A&M and sent the game into overtime after posting three goals in a five-minute span.
Unfortunately, the Lady Panthers scored a goal early in the overtime period to defeat the Devilettes 4-3 on Senior Day.
Prior to the game, MVSU honored its five seniors: Nykosi Simmons, Josee Primeau, Alexis Mansoor, Hailey Beekman and Jayme Forcier.
With a 3-0 lead, Prairie View looked to be skating to an easy victory over the Devilettes. But, Valley never gave up and ended its rally with Heather Craddock's first collegiate career goal on the 86th minute to send the teams into overtime. It marked the fourth consecutive overtime game for the Devilettes.
It all looked bleak on the scoreboard on the 81st minute with Prairie View leading 3-0. But five magical minutes changed the script and pushed the game into overtime. Prairie View started the game very strong forcing MVSU to concede an early penalty kick. With quick inter positional play, the Panthers got behind the Devilettes backline. The referee adjudged a challenge by Andrea Kennedy on a Lady Panther forward as illegal and awarded a penalty with only six minutes played. The resultant penalty kick, however, was superbly saved by sophomore goalkeeper Rita Gyasi to keep the game barren.
The Panthers continued to dominate the game and got rewarded through Alicia Cooper. Breanna Powell made an overlapping run before sending in an out swinger. The ball eluded everyone but Cooper who had the easiest job of tapping the ball into the far post. The misery of the Devilettes continued three minutes later with Cooper's second of the day. She, this time, benefitted from a cross from Kara Ballard. Valley began to get themselves into the game to reduce the deficit but it was the Panther who scored the third goal through substitute Arianna Rountree from a Shelby Moore assist.
"When you are playing at this level you cannot decide to sleep for 45 minutes," said MVSU head coach Fabio Boateng. "Teams will punish you. We were sloppy the whole 45 minutes."
Whatever first-year head coach Fabio Boateng said at the locker room at halftime seemed to yield early dividends as the Devilettes came out their shells to compete. The team began to press and close gaps better than they did in the first half. The team also began to take good care of the ball in the second half by holding possession. It was one of those exchanges that resulted in the first goal for the Devilettes. Goalkeeper Gyasi took a short goal kick finding left back Andrea Kennedy who beat her marker and found central midfielder Haley Hendricks. The California native rounded two Lady Panthers before slotting the ball through for Nykosi Simmons. Simmons shot from 25 yards out to beat Prairie View's goalkeeper Bianca Garza beyond the 81st minute.
Less than a minute later, Valley was within one goal to tie the game. Again, it started from the defensive side when Andrea Kennedy and Ernestina Abambila played a wall pass to get behind on the left side of the Lady Panthers defense. Kennedy sent in a decent cross for Simmons to finish a Prairie View defender pushed her off the ball and the referee rightly whistled for a penalty. Captain Josee Primeau elected to take the kick and calmly placed it on the right side of the goalie to bring the game to 3-2 in favor of the Panthers with eight minutes left to play.
With nothing to lose at this point, Boateng made a tactical switch pushing both defenders Craddock and Primeau forward. This switched paid off almost immediately as Primeau and Simmons combined to find Craddock who hit the roof of the net to complete the come back.
"I know what this group is capable of doing when they begin to play soccer," said Boateng. "They showed an unbelievable spirit after they put themselves in a very tight situation."
But what would have gone down as a great come back fell short just 34 seconds into overtime as a failed offside trapped gifted Kara Ballard with 1v1 with Gyasi. The Lady Panther forward kept her composure to score to end the game.
