5A Playoffs: Long Beach boys, Florence girls headed to South State Finals
FLORENCE — Ethan LaBorde was at the right place at the right time.
LaBorde score the go-ahead goal three minutes into the second 10-minute overtime period to lift Long Beach over Florence 2-1 in overtime in the Second Round of the MHSAA Boys Soccer Playoffs on Saturday evening.
The Bearcats (15-2-1) will host West Jones for the MHSAA Class 5A South State Championship on Tuesday night.
“Just had to adjust throughout the second half to what they were doing, and I knew it was going to be a good game just glad we came out on top,” said Long Beach coach Andee Wilburn. “For us it’s all about being a team and having people where they need to be and putting them in those positions and them coming through getting the job done was huge.”
The Bearcats scored first nine minutes into the game as Vincenzo Jeanfreau scored to give Long Beach the early 1-0 lead.
Florence quickly tied the game at 1 as Xzavion Quick scored on a breakaway with about 21 minutes left in the first half.
The Eagles out shot Long Beach 18-11 for the game, but Long Beach goal keeper Liam Sartin had 11 saves to prevent Florence from taking the lead.
“He was big time for sure,” Wilburn said. “Going into it we all knew Florence has a good team, so we’re just trying to go back to where we’ve been and trying to make our way back there. It’s very difficult to get back to South State year in and year out, but we’re excited to be back.”
In the second 10-minute overtime Jeanfreau threw the ball in to LaBorde and made a move around a defender and his shot got past the Florence goal keeper and into the net.
“Vincenzo threw it in, it got deflected and came to me and I turned, and I just hit it and prayed that it would go in and it their keeper went the wrong way and it went in,” LaBorde said. “We had to play hard and we’ve been games like this before and we had to believe in ourselves and had to push.”
Florence finished the season 18-4-1.
“In my opinion the state championship game was played tonight here,” said Florence coach Josh Cavanaugh. “Credit it to them. They kept us out of the net and they took care of their chance and we didn’t.”
MORE: 2022 MHSAA Boys Soccer Playoff Brackets
GIRLS
Florence 5, West Harrison 0
Southern Miss signee Shaelynn Quick and Addie Grace Barnard each scored two goals in the first half to lead the Lady Eagles over the Lady Hurricanes in the Second Round of the MHSAA Class 5A Girls Soccer Playoffs.
Florence (20-1) will travel to George County for the MHSAA Class 5A South State Championship on Tuesday.
Christina Guzman and Madelyn Edwards each added a goal for the Lady Eagles in the second half.
West Harrison finished the season 13-4-1.
