Reynolds’ hat trick powers WC to victory|Prep soccer

Published 12:00 am Friday, December 11, 2009

Warren Central sophomore Mallory Reynolds has found soccer in Mississippi, and against girls, a lot more fun.

The South Carolina transfer student recorded a hat trick Thursday night to lift the Lady Vikes to a 5-0 win over Greenville-Weston in a key Division 4-6A match at Viking Stadium. Reynolds said her three-goal game was the first of her varsity career.

“When I was in South Carolina I played at a real small school and with boys because there was no girls team. It’s fun to be able to play with a bunch of girls. It’s been a long time since I’ve scored three goals in a game,” Reynolds said.

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Reynolds scored all of her goals in the first half and then moved to sweeper in the second as coach Janet McMaster preferred to keep the Honey Bees from scoring.

“Because it was a division game, I didn’t want to give up any goals,” McMaster said.

WC improved to 1-1 in the division and 6-3-2 overall heading into this weekend’s Brooke Welch Tournament in Jackson. The Lady Vikes will face Oxford tonight at 7:45 and will get Northwest Rankin and Greenville St. Joseph on Saturday.

“I wanted to give our experienced eighth graders more time on the field, but again, because it was a division game and one we had to have, I didn’t get everyone in. We played pretty good. We’ve worked on a few things since the last tournament. I wanted to see our defense push up quicker. We just now need to get Dana (Warnock) back,” McMaster said.

Warnock, WC’s regular goal keeper, hurt her leg in last week’s Mid-Mississippi Classic. She won’t play in this weekend’s tournament, WC’s final games before New Year’s.

Against Greenville-Weston, the Lady Vikes put 29 shots on goal. Reynolds had six of the shots and made three, including a corner kick that curved right into the far corner of the net.

In the second half, Chelsea Duett and Lindsey Burris scored. The Honey Bees were limited to just one shot on a goal, that coming in the first half.

(B) WC 5, Greenville 0

The Vikings (9-2, 2-0) stayed unbeaten in Division 4-6A, but needed four second-half goals to subdue the Hornets.

Austin Greer scored WC’s first goal. It stayed 1-0 until 11:41 remained, then Kolby Porter scored two goals in a three-minute span. Jacob Pettersson set up the next goal when his side of the box free kick found Matt Waddle near post for the goal. Eighth-grader Hunter Rowland got the Vikings’ last goal.

WC was without top players Eric Chappell and Tim Hoeptner. Both suffered concussions in last week’s Mid-Mississippi Classic.

“We just had to learn and play without them and it took us a while,” WC coach Greg Head said. “They were both mild but we won’t play them this weekend.”

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com