The final game of the season came down to the final minutes.
The Southwest men (5-7-1, 4-6-1) stormed back from a 2-0 deficit with just 10 players to tie it in the 73rd minute.
A quick counter attack in the 88th minute put the finishing touches on the game for Pearl River as the men lost 3-2.
The Southwest women held a 1-0 lead before falling 4-2.
Nine minutes after half Dylan Boyd was sent off after earning a yellow card for pushing a Wildcat down and then was sent off when he pushed a player away on his way to the bench.
Boyd left, but the Southwest attack didn’t.
Two minutes later, Marshall Ngobidi found Sam Carter on the left side and Carter’s shot found the right side of the goal to put Southwest down just 2-1.
“That mental error is unacceptable,” Soutwhest head coach David Strother said. “We were already down two goals, but it seemed like we attacked better. We had one or two guys step up and start playing better.”
Ten minutes later, the Bears started finding set pieces on the attack. Two free kicks around the 70th minute gave the Bears chances and a corner kick in the 71st put a ball into the box, but it was Carter who came through once again.
In the 73rd minute, he found a ball that was deflected off a pass and sent it from the left side into the right side of the net. This time sneaking it just past the goalie’s fingertips.
With the game tied, Pearl River had a little more urgency and with an extra man it put the game into attack-counter-attack for both teams.
Pearl River’s Josh Barfield put in the gamewinner in the 88th minute to seal up third place for the Wildcats and leave the Bears in fourth.
“Our sophomores put down a great foundation for the program,” Strother said. “This game was for third place. This was a nice reward for them.”
Pearl River 4, Southwest 2
The women scored in the 7th minute when Iris Hartman curled a pass into the box for Maggie Dunaway who finished it for a 1-0 lead.
Over the following 25 minutes Southwest fell behind 4-1, but changes for the second half plugged the holes.
The Lady Bears (4-8-1, 4-6) won the second half as they scored on a penalty kick that Hartman placed in the back of the net to make it 4-2 in the 55th minute.
“It was a better game than yesterday,” Bullock said. “It was the most aggressive game we’ve played.
It was a good way to end the season.”
