Pillow Academy pulled off its biggest win of the year in boys soccer, defeating previously undefeated Heritage Academy 4-1 on Monday.
“I’ve been coaching for three years here, and that’s the best start our team has gotten off to,” third-year head coach Serafin Simon said. “We’ve been working on our passing on offense, and it really clicked (Monday).”
Avenging their only defeat of the year, the Mustangs exploded for two goals in the first three minutes against a Heritage squad that had shut them out 2-0 in December.
Attacking midfielder Alex Lindsey laid a perfect pass to forward Sunjay Chawla two minutes into the contest, and Chawla scored with his left foot to take a 1-0 lead.
Then midfielder Christian Belk strode down the right side and launched a cross to Chawla, who held the ball and struck it past the Heritage keeper to give Pillow a shocking 2-0 early lead.
Heritage cut the lead in half midway through the first half when Lex Rodgers launched a shot outside the outstretched hands of Pillow goalie Floyd Melton IV to make the score 2-1.
Following frantic back-and-forth action over the next 30 minutes, Pillow put the game away when Chawla scored again. The senior forward took a shot with his right foot that the keeper bobbled, and Chawla followed in and struck a quick left-footed shot to give Pillow a 3-1 lead. Chawla’s fourth hat trick of the year gives him 25 goals on the season.
Pillow closed out the game with seven minutes left when Jeffrey Bready took a pass from Lawson Harvey and was able to kick it past the Heritage goalie.
Pillow was outshot 10-7 for the game after being outshot 10-4 at Columbus in their previous battle. Melton led a strong defensive effort with six saves. Pillow dominated play from the corners, launching eight corner kicks to the Patriots’ one.
The Mustangs (7-1-1) play a key conference game today in Senatobia versus Magnolia Heights Academy.
