Cooper ignites North to all-star win|[06/17/07]

RAYMOND – It almost looked too easy for Michael Cooper.

Playing against some of the best soccer players in the state at the Mississippi Association of Coaches high school all-star game, the Vicksburg High graduate scored three goals and added an assist to help the North squad to a 9-1 win over the South at Joe Renfroe Stadium at Hinds Community College.

Cooper, the 2005 and 2006 Vicksburg Post Player of the Year, earned the game’s Most Valuable Offensive Player honor.

&#8220This was just a chance one more time to play with friends,” Cooper said. &#8220I played with all of them at the select level, so I was real familiar with everybody.”

Fourteen minutes into Saturday afternoon’s game, Cooper earned his only assist when he found Clinton’s Barry Prather near the goal to give the North a 1-0 lead.

All of Cooper’s scoring came in the second half with his team in command of the game. Cooper’s first goal came in the 54th minute to give the North a 5-1 lead. He added goals in the 63rd minute and the 76th minute to complete the hat trick.

Throughout the game, Cooper’s superior speed was on display. All of his goals were the result of his ability to race past defenders and then capitalize on scoring opportunities.

&#8220I’ve played with him a long time and I’ve seen it all,” said Josh Dixon, Cooper’s former VHS teammate and the only other Warren County representative in the boys game. &#8220He’s just fast and he can get in the right spot.”

In the girls’ game earlier in the day, which ended in a 1-1 tie, Warren Central’s Mary Clare Scurria and Liza Kate Chaney played with Vicksburg’s Holly Head on the North team.

Saturday’s contest marked the last time Scurria, Chaney and Head will play together competitively on the same team. The trio said they had played together on club squads since they were 8 or 9 years old.

Though the all-star games marked the end of their high school careers, four of the five Warren County players have plans to continue playing in college.

Cooper has signed with Hinds, Dixon has signed with Mars Hill College, a Division II school in North Carolina, and Head has signed with Meridian Community College.

After Saturday’s game, Scurria, the 2007 Vicksburg Post Player of the Year, said she had a meeting with Mississippi State coach Neil Macdonald to see if she could join the Bulldogs as a walk-on. Only Chaney, who said she will attend Ole Miss in the fall, doesn’t have plans to continue playing.

Dixon said he will train this summer for the rigors of college soccer, and the all-star game was a good starting point.

&#8220Almost everybody on this team is probably going somewhere to play in college,” Dixon said. &#8220This definitely gave me an aura of what college will be like.”