MADISON — As they wrapped up their final postgame pep talk of the season, tears and laughter mixed among the St. Aloysius Lady Flashes.

The tears came from the sudden finality of Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to Madison-St. Joseph in the Class 1A-2A-3A semifinals. In an instant, dreams of turning the program’s first postseason appearance into a Cinderella championship run were dashed.

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The laughter came from the knowledge of a job well done and the memories made along the way.

“We had a really good season. We’re real excited to get to the state semifinals,” said St. Al defender Geena Nellis, one of nine seniors on the roster. “It’s been exciting. We made it close in previous years, but to make it here is really cool.”

Mari Mac Collins and Savannah Stauffer scored goals for St. Joe    

(9-4-2), which advanced to the 1A-2A-3A championship game on Friday against Our Lady Academy. It is St. Joe’s first appearance in the finals since 2006, when it won, and was well-deserved.

The Lady Bruins controlled the action from start to finish against St. Al (8-3-1). They outshot the Lady Flashes 15-5, took seven corner kicks, and just missed scoring on four different chances in the first half. A series of plays on which St. Joe players were a half-step behind crosses or unable to gather in a pass while open in front of the net could have turned the game into a rout early.

“I felt like we could have executed our chances better. But they have a lot of strong players in the back that cover a lot of ground,” St. Joe coach Brad Biard said. “They can make you look clumsy.”

Ironically, after all the missed chances, the only goal in the first half was the result of a fortuitous bounce.

In the seventh minute, Collins was battling for the ball with a St. Al defender near the 10-yard line. Collins kicked the ball toward the net, but it was blocked by the defender and bounced into open ground. Collins, the daughter of Vicksburg native and St. Al graduate Laurie Stamm-Collins, alertly followed up, gathering the ball and scoring on a mini-breakaway for a 1-0 lead.

That remained the score until the 23rd minute of the second half. Stauffer chased down a long pass over the defense and scored on a true breakaway to make it 2-0.

“Our first half wasn’t as strong as it was before, so we were playing catch-up. Against good, competitive teams that’s hard to do,” St. Al coach Keiko Booth said. “We’ve played better and the girls knew it. We came out in the second half with the realization that we could play better.”

And St. Al did play well enough on defense to keep it close. Its scoring chances, though, were isolated.

Five minutes into the second half, St. Joe keeper Jenny Coffey came outside the box to play the ball and had it ricochet off her arms as she slid. Ansley Fulcher blooped a soft shot over the keeper and the defense, toward the empty goal, but it landed about a foot wide and bounced harmlessly off the outside of the right post.

With 13 minutes to play, Fulcher got another chance. She sent a grounder through the defense from the top of the box, only to have Coffee make a diving save to keep the score at 2-0. It was the last shot the lady Flashes took.

Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com