FLOWOOD — In the blink of an eye, Warren Central went from the brink of a tie to watching its excellent season slink away and die.

Chandler Shirley scored twice in the second half — including a breathtaking 100-yard breakaway after Warren Central seemed poised to score the tying goal — and Northwest Rankin beat the Vikings 3-0 in the first round of the MHSAA Class 6A boys’ soccer playoffs on Tuesday night.

Northwest Rankin (20-1) advanced to play Desoto Central in the second round. Warren Central finished with a 13-4 record, but failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season.

“They’re just so fast, and we’re not used to the speed of play. To me, they’re one of the best teams in the state. We can match up with them for a little while, but we’re not used to that speed,” Warren Central coach Greg Head said. “They take advantage of their shots. I don’t think we got any shots. We just couldn’t work the ball down there. We were so worried about defending that we weren’t pushing up enough.”

Northwest Rankin beat Warren Central 1-0 when the teams played in December and, despite the final score and the 15-0 advantage the Cougars had in shots, Tuesday’s rematch was another competitive game.
Warren Central had flurries of sustained pressure, especially in the second half, but couldn’t put any of its shots on goal. Northwest Rankin’s tallies, meanwhile, all resulted from fortuitous bounces that put its players in perfect position to make outstanding plays.

The Cougars’ first goal came in the 27th minute. The ball found its way right in front of the right goal post, and a pack of pursuing players crashed the goal. Warren Central keeper Chase Graham was knocked off balance as they charged forward, and Peyton Ratcliff tapped the loose ball just inside the post.

Then, in the second half, Shirley turned two good bounces into the goals that broke Warren Central’s back.
In the 48th minute Warren Central took a corner kick but was unable to put a shot on goal in the ensuing flurry. Shirley wound up with the ball along the right sideline and the entire field in front of him. He dribbled it the distance, 100 yards in all, and juked a couple of defenders before finally ripping a shot past Graham from less than 15 yards away to put Northwest Rankin up 2-0.

“I saw they were about to attack on the corner, and my first priority was to get the ball out of the box. When I saw nobody was stepping with me I just decided to carry it as far as I could,” Shirley said. “It’s tiring. Eventually I’m going to slow down. I was glad I got the break early, around midfield, and could speed up. I did get tired and when I got in the box I decided it was time to shoot it.”

The Vikings held the line there, and even took over the game for a few brief spells, before Shirley put the exclamation point on the victory in the 77th minute.

A corner kick was deflected in front of the goal, and the ball bounced slow and straight out to the 25-yard line. Shirley took a couple of steps and, without any defenders around him, lined himself up head on with the goal and ripped a laser beam over Graham’s head to make it 3-0.

Graham had eight saves, but no answer for Shirley’s two perfectly-placed shots.

“Just a bouncing volley at the top of the 18,” Shirley said. “It’s every striker or midfielder’s dream, just to get one that’s sitting right there for you.”

(G) Northwest Rankin 6, Warren Central 0

Northwest Rankin (18-2) scored two goals in the last six minutes of the first half to break it open, and tacked on two in the last five minutes of the game to pad the score, as it bounced Warren Central (8-9-1) from the Class 6A girls’ soccer playoffs.

Lindsey Stephenson had two goals and an assist for Northwest Rankin, which is ranked No. 1 in the state by MaxPreps. Alyssia Davis, Abbi Russell, Taylor Collum and Jaelyn Hanson scored one goal each.
WC goal keeper Layken Stockstill made 17 saves.

“The effort was there, no doubt. All I expect from them is to give me all they had, and I really think they did. We had a few unfortunate situations that were just mistakes. Young players making mistakes,” Warren Central coach Jay Madison said.

Davis put Northwest Rankin on the board in the 18th minute, and then late in the first half the Lady Cougars broke it open. A defensive misplay deep in WC’s end gave Stephenson the ball and an open path to the net. She completed the short breakaway for a 2-0 lead in the 34th minute.

Then, right before the halftime whistle, Collum scored on an 18-yard free kick to make it 3-0. Stephenson scored again 10 minutes into the second half to turn the game into a bonafide rout.

Henson scored in the 75th minute and Russell in the 77th to push the score to 6-0.

“That was killer,” Madison said of the two quick goals in the first half. “Those hurt, especially for a young team. We’re thinking we’re fixing to come off the field with a lot of confidence. If we get out of there 1-0, it’s probably a whole different deal. It didn’t happen that way. I don’t think the score indicated what kind of game it was.”