Meridian secures gold with win over Pascagoula
By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
June 24, 2002
The fatigue and soreness may last a little while but the bragging rights will last much longer.
Meridian secured the gold medal in the round-robin Masters (over 30) competition with a 4-1 victory over Pascagoula on Friday night at a very wet Northeast Park.
In the Open competition, Clinton beat Long Beach 3-2 to pick up the gold medal.
In the Masters competition, Meridian came into the day tied with Hattiesburg with two games left to play. The two teams faced off in the first game of the day and battled to a 0-0 tie.
Meridian had to battle the weather and a tough Hattiesburg team. The game was delayed twice because of lightning. Hattiesburg came out of the delays with some good chances to scored but the strong Meridian defense kept the ball out of the net for the draw.
To win the gold Meridian needed some help to break the deadlock with Hattiesburg. That help came from Flowood.
Flowood beat Hattiesburg 4-0 to take the lead in the second-to-last game of the day. The win put Flowood ahead of Meridian by two points in the standings going into the last game.
Meridian fell behind 1-0 in the first half to Pascagoula before storming back to win. Chris Reed tied the game up with a goal off of a great pass by Chino Suarez.
With Meridian needing a win, tie or two goals to win the gold, Andy Solomon sealed the day with a header goal later in the game. Suarez sent a great cross from the right side of the field to Solomon who headed the ball in to give Meridian a 2-1 lead.
Suarez later scored a goal to make the score 3-1. He also got another assist as he fed Hazem Shanab with a pass for the final goal of the game.
Flowood ended up with the silver medal while Hattiesburg took the bronze in the competition.
Clinton 3
Long Beach 2
Clinton took advantage of a tired Long Beach and won the gold medal game in the open event 3-2.
Clinton won the "B" bracket to make the semifinals. It beat Brilla 4-2 in the semifinal match to make the finals.
Long Beach had a much tougher time getting into the finals. Long Beach went undefeated in the "C" bracket to make the semifinals. It then had a tough battle with Jackson Fury.
Long Beach led 1-0 for most of the game but Jackson scored a goal in the second half to tie the game. Neither team could score again in regulation so two 10-minute overtime periods were played. When no one scored in the overtime, the teams went into a shootout.
Long Beach led the shootout 4-3 with one Jackson shot to be taken. The final shot went wide left and Long Beach moved on with the 2-1 win.
Clinton scored the first goal of the game early in the first half but Long Beach was able to tie the game up later in the half. The scored was 1-1 at the half.
Clinton once again got ahead in the second half on a header goal, but Long Beach was able to answer just minutes later. Clinton finally got the final goal of the game in halfway through the second half to win the gold medal.
Jackson Fury and Brilla decided not to stay and play the bronze-medal game so both teams were awarded the bronze.
