Lady Warriors Make Postseason With Win at Northwest

Lady Warriors Make Postseason With Win at Northwest

The East Central Lady Warriors qualified for postseason play in their final MACJC North Division soccer match of the season with a 3-1 road win over Northwest in Senatobia on Oct. 15.

The ECCC Warriors will have to wait until Oct. 17 to learn their postseason fate after falling 3-1 to the Northwest Rangers in the second match of the afternoon.

The Lady Warriors finished in third place in the MACJC North Division and will play at either Jones College or Pearl River on Tuesday, Oct. 22. The match between those two teams to determine the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the South Division will be played later this week after being postponed on Oct. 15 due to weather.

Sophomore forward Leah Anderson (Leyland, United Kingdom) scored her team-leading 15th goal of the season early in first half to give East Central a 1-0 lead in the win.

After Northwest got the equalizer early in the second half, freshman forward Hannah Herren (Florence) put the Lady Warriors back on top 2-1 with a goal. A goal by freshman defender Mackenzie Alford (Kosciusko) with under four minutes to play put the match away. Herren also had an assist in the match

Anderson is now in second place all-time in goals in a season for the Lady Warriors and just one goal away from tying the all-time career mark.

"It's great to pick up the final playoff spot in the MACJC North today," said ECCC Head Women's Coach Ryan Joiner. "We played a tough opponent on the road and were able to get an early goal to settle into the match. The girls have worked hard this season to accomplish goal number one and we're looking forward to the challenge of the postseason in our league."

The win improved the Lady Warriors' record to 8-6-1 on the season and 4-4 in MACJC North Division play. The Northwest Lady Rangers fell to 3-11 overall and 2-6 in division play.

The Lady Warriors will close out the regular season on Friday, Oct. 18, when Dyersburg State (Tenn.) visits Decatur for a match at 2 p.m.

In the men's match, East Central trailed 2-0 early when freshman defender Guilherme Sales (Manaus, Brazil) knocked in a goal for the Warriors to make the score 2-1. That's as close as East Central would get as the Rangers added a second half goal for the 3-1 win.

The ECCC Warriors are now 6-11 overall and finish 3-5 in division play. The Northwest Rangers are 2-11-1 overall and 2-4-1 in division play with one match remaining at Itawamba on Oct. 17. If Northwest ties or loses at Itawamba, then East Central will be the No. 3 seed from the North Division and face either Pearl River or Jones in a road playoff match.