Indians top East Central, secures playoff spot
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

FULTON, MS – The ICC men's soccer team punched their ticket to the postseason with a 3-1 win over the East Central on Sunday.

Dylan Howard (Starkville) broke open a scoreless match when he blistered a shot past the Warriors' keeper to give the Indians a 1-0 lead in the early stages of the second half.

"That was a big goal for us," said Coach Mike Sullivan. "We wanted to go on the attack early in the second half after missing some many great scoring opportunities in the first half. Dylan did a great job freezing up the keeper and putting it by him to give us that positive start we were looking for."

The Indians (12-2-0, 4-2-0 MACJC North) built on their one-goal lead when Blake Lashlee (Olive Branch) went top shelf to give the Indians a 2-0 lead. East Central (5-6-2, 1-4-0 MACJC North) would answer with a goal off a rebound to cut the Indians lead in half midway through the second half.

"That was a mental let down on our part," Sullivan said. "We got the quick 2-0 lead and I think the guys kind of thought the match was over with, but East Central is a good squad that's going to give you everything they've got for all 90 minutes."

ICC tacked on the third and final goal after East Central player tackled Anthony Fernandez (New Albany) inside the box to set up Evan Thomas (Amory) for a penalty kick in the final seconds of the match.

"I was proud of the way the guys played today," commented Sullivan. "East Central played an extremely physical match and except for a couple occasions I thought we were able to battle through the mental part of the game and not lose our cool. It was a hard-fought win and hopefully we can learn from this match as we moved forward throughout and the regular season and into the playoffs."

Thomas added two assists in the match.

The Indians locked a spot in the playoffs with today's win and will face Hinds (8-4-0, 5-1-0 MACJC North) in back-to-back matches on Tuesday, October 21 and Thursday, October 24 with the MACJC North Division Championship along with a bye into the opening round of the playoffs on the line.

The MACJC quarterfinals are scheduled for October 28 with the semifinals and finals set for the first week of November.

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