Fifth-year head coach Serafin Simon took offense at the start of the season over predictions that this would be a rebuilding year at Pillow Academy. After all, he lost seven starters from last year’s varsity squad.
Now Simon’s young guns are one game away from winning his second state championship in five years following a 3-2 win over rival Lamar School in Meridian.
Pillow will now play in Saturday’s Division II title game against defending state champion Hartfield Academy. The matchup will be held at Jackson Academy at a time to be determined on Friday.
“I told everyone at the start of the season that these young kids were hungry,” Simon said after the win. “My young kids were smaller in size than Lamar’s physical players, but that didn’t stop these kids from rising to the occasion. I expect to be in the state championship game every year for the next few years.”
The star of the game was senior forward Richard McQueen, who tallied two goals and one assist. He opened the scoring 10 minutes into the contest when fellow senior Christian Belk tossed a throw-in into the box that McQueen nudged into the goal for a 1-0 lead.
McQueen scored his second goal of the contest 20 minutes later, when sophomore Lawson Harvey zig-zagged through the box and laid off a perfect pass to set up McQueen’s finish.
“The physicality was fair in the first half on both sides — not as much in the second — but we kept a good mindset throughout the game,” McQueen said.
“The effort that the young ones put in as well pushes us to try our hardest and we are going to the ship.”
The Mustangs (13-5) took a commanding 3-0 lead in the second half when McQueen sent a corner kick to Belk, who spectacularly headed the ball past a diving Lamar keeper.
“Nothing is more fun than beating someone on their home field in front of their crowd,” Belk said. “But I’ll take a state championship over this any day of the week.”
After that, play became very physical as six yellow cards and one red card were handed out in the second half between the two teams. Lamar was able to cut the deficit to 3-1 midway through the second half on a close kick past Pillow keeper George Sfeir.
Lamar rallied to score on the final play of the game off of a corner kick, but it was too little, too late.
Pillow outshot Lamar 8-6 and outcornered them 6-2. Sfeir played an outstanding game in goal, and senior defender Taylor Giesbrecht made a spectacular defensive play to prevent a goal.
Earlier this year, the Mustangs lost to their next opponent, Hartfield, 2-1. They last met in the playoffs in 2019, when Hartfield eliminated Pillow, 3-2, in the semifinals.
The original version of this article incorrectly reported the number of red cards issued in the contest.
