Collierville, behind a pair goals from Zoe Cultra and Holly Stalls, downed host ECS, 2-1, in a good, late-season test for each team.
The Dragons are looking to make it back to the Class AAA state tournament for the seventh year in a row (they've finished runner-up to Houston for the last two) while ECS is a perennial title threat in the smaller of the two Division 2 classifications. After the match, Collierville coach Gareth Munro indicated that numbers of bodies certainly played a difference in the outcome in a match-up of teams that have reloaded from 2018.
"I'm very blessed to coach at Collierville and I'm very blessed to have the level of talent I do at my disposal," Munro said. "(Coach) Jordan (Thompson) is going through a similar transition at ECS; he lost a big senior class. His team is very young … with the number of players at my disposal, I had two freshmen starting and another one on the bench.
"Whereas he doesn't have that luxury; he has multiple freshman (playing important roles). That makes a big difference, especially with a big public school playing a smaller private school. But credit to him for the job he's doing; they're very competitive and have been for years and years and years."
In fact, the Eagles took the lead Thursday on a pretty, looping long-range strike from Annie Todd in the 15th minute of play. It didn't take long for the Dragons to equalize though as Zoe Cultra scored off an assist from Holly Stalls.
Stalls, who is headed to Louisville, then got the winner early in the second half as she ran on to Sydney Davis' precise through ball and chipped it into the net.
Collierville (7-6-0) had several other good chances sprinkled in throughout the match and certainly didn't look like a team that has lost six games. Munro said it's taken time but the results are beginning to show.
"I think we're a good team," Munro said. "We had some injuries (and) moved players in an out of positions. But you can't underestimate the quality of the senior class we lost. We lost a lot of very good players. And just making the transition from being a freshman kid or a jayvee kid or being a rotational player last year to being in the starting line-up, it's difficult to do.
"It's just taken a little bit more time than we would have anticipated."
ECS task wasn't made any easier when leading goalscorer Lesley Coleman went down with an apparent ankle injury midway through the first half. She didn't return but Thompson said he was able to use that as a positive against a strong team that he won't have to worry about in the playoffs.
"(Thursday) doesn't effect either of our postseasons," he said. "It's all about learning who our team is and we had to play some girls who had not played a lot of minutes. I thought the girls that went up and played center-forward--one had been playing right back for us and the other is (also) an outside back, I thought they did a really good job.
"I have a lot more answered questions than unanswered questions after a game like that. You have to be pragmatic … no question, they had the bulk of the chances. But we had one chance that we took really, really well … and we w... Click here to read full article
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