Posted: Oct 04, 2016

Lady Bulldogs make final push towards the postseason

The Holmes Community College Lady Bulldog soccer team solidified their place in history last week by defeating Southwest Mississippi Community College and becoming the all-time winningest team in the history of Holmes women's soccer.

With the win, the Lady Bulldogs went to 9-1 overall and are currently 3-1 in the North Division, which is second. The Lady Bulldogs have four division matches left to play and hoping to find themselves in the playoffs at the end of the regular season. Holmes travels to Hinds on Saturday before hosting Northwest on Oct. 11 and East Central on Oct. 14. The team ends the regular season on Oct. 18 at Itawamba.

"I think we are in a great place right now," Associate Head Coach Wesley Noble said. "It's completely in our hands. We are just now starting to get everybody back healthy, and we have yet to play a game with everybody healthy. We've had this week off and we were able to get some rest, have some good training sessions, and let some injuries heal. We're excited about taking another step forward."

"We have a great group of girls," he said. "They are not worried about who scores just as long as the team gets the task accomplished. It just shows their attitude and character. We have multiple people who've scored goals. Last year we had two girls who scored 70 percent of our goals. It's just different this year."

Kendal Walsh, a forward from Brandon who prepped at East Rankin Academy, leads the Lady Bulldogs with 10 goals and is one goal behind Vanessa Gaytan for the all-time record. "She's a natural goal scorer. She has done this in seven games. That's huge for us. She's a freshman is continuously getting better and better every time she steps on the field. She's not scared to pull the trigger. She's a little ambitious at times, but we don't call her out on that because she's scoring goals."

Brooke Burrell, a midfielder from Madison who prepped at Madison Central, leads the Lady Bulldogs in assists and has tied the lead for assists in a single season with four former Lady Bulldogs – Jenna Ceravolo, Emma Warren, Rachel Geissler and Ashley Wilson. "She has had some big ones in some big games," Noble said. " Brooke plays 90 minutes nearly every single game. She continues to get better. She sees the field as well as any player I've ever coached. She has a natural knowledge of the game. She's been our engine in the middle."

Noble said he feels his team is surprising some teams in the MACJC. "I don't think anybody thought we'd be in this position," Noble said. "Ever since we lost to East Central we've been a little more hungry every game. The girls didn't take that loss very well. We have play very well some of those games and we have played poorly in some. We didn't play well against Southwest, and we managed to get that win because the girls fought through it. That's going to happen. You are not going play well every single game, but good teams find a way to win even when they are playing poorly."

The Lady Bulldogs had four goals at the beginning of the season --- see each player improve, make the playoffs, win the North Division, and compete for the state title. To finish strong and accomplish the goals, Noble said. "We need to play like Holmes Community College Lady Bulldogs. If everyone does their job, then we are successful. If we play like us , we'll be fine."