Indians impressive in season opener vs Meridian

Indians impressive in season opener vs Meridian
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

FULTON, MS – The Itawamba Community College men's soccer team opened the 2013 season with an impressive 3-1 victory over Meridian Community College on Wednesday.

"Just ask the sophomores, this feels a lot better than we started the season last year," Coach Mike Sullivan told the players after the game. "It was a great effort, but we have to stay focused and build on this to keep getting better because the competition doesn't get any easier from here."

The Indians (1-0, 0-0 MACJC North) dropped an 8-1 to eventual MACJC State Champion Pearl River Community College, but first half goals from Dylan Howard (Starkville), Evan Thomas (Amory), and Ricky Hackler (Columbus) along with stellar play in net by Cullen Grantham (Corinth) helped ICC start the season on a much better foot.

"I felt like we played the first 60 minutes with a lot of great team work and effort," commented Sullivan. "Dylan got the first goal of the season for us early in the match and the rest of the guys really fed off that momentum that led to Evan and Ricky adding a couple more goals for us in the first half." 

"We knew Meridian would make the adjustments they needed to make in the second half, but I felt like our guys met that challenge and answered with a lot of effort on the defensive side of the ball."

The Indians will look to keep things rolling as they travel to Jones County Junior College on Friday.

"This is going to be a really good test for us coming off a win," Sullivan said. "It's our first road trip of the season and it's a long one. Jones is one of the teams that will be in the mix of things for the South Champion this season and will be a good challenge for us to see how well the guys will responde to the mental and physical challenges of playing on the road." 

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