Lady Cobras head to Bay St. Louis for soccer playoff

Published 6:27 pm Monday, January 27, 2020

The Wesson Lady Cobras (18-7) head south Tuesday night for a 6 p.m. matchup with Our Lady Academy in Bay St. Louis. The match is a first-round game in the MHSAA Class I playoffs.

Wesson and coach Bobo Douglas made the postseason by finishing 8-2 in Region 7 behind Franklin County (19-4).

OLA is a private, all-girls Catholic school — the only one of its kind in the state. The Crescents are 14-3-2 overall and won Region 8 by splitting a pair of region games with defending state champs Sacred Heart.

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Our Lady Academy beat Sacred Heart 2-1 in overtime on Jan. 20. Earlier in the season on Nov. 18 Sacred Heart won 1-0 in double overtime. The only other losses for OLA this season have been to 6A Northwest Rankin (14-3-1) and 4A Vancleave (15-3-2).

The region losses for Wesson against Franklin County were a 2-0 defeat on Dec. 19 and a 3-0 road loss on Jan. 16. Wesson was dominate against the other four teams in the region — beating them a by a combined 59-3.

Franklin County (19-4) plays Sacred Heart (10-7) Tuesday night in their playoff opener.

The senior triumvirate of Natalie Bonds, Amya Williams and Arie Douglas have been the power behind the Wesson offense.

Bonds has scored a team high 25 goals this season after leading in the same category last year with 16 goals.

Williams and Douglass have scored 22 goals each with Douglas chipping in a team-high nine assists.

Junior goalkeeper Chloee McManus has made 94 saves this season for the Wesson defense.

Freshman Marley Channell is the only other double-digit scorer for Wesson as she’s put 13 goals into the net.

Sophomore Alexi Guess, senior Gabriela Flores, junior Ella Silvan, sophomore Kyla Smith and junior Avery Kyle are all key pieces in the Wesson midfield and defense.

The 18 wins this season for Wesson is the most in school history. The Lady Cobras were 16-6 two seasons ago and were knocked out 4-2 by North Forrest in the opening round of the playoffs.

Last season they finished 10-8 with a young team and Douglas wasn’t sure what to expect coming into the season. He quickly realized that his senior goal scorers would provide the offense and his underclassmen had improved greatly from the season before.

Junior midfielder Aubrey Wawrek is the leading scoring threat for OLA.

Douglas says his team will be facing a talented group from Our Lady Academy.

“We just have to stay in our lanes on defense and stay in front of everyone that has the ball,” said Douglas. “We have to be able to settle the ball and make good passes and decisions.”