Posted on September 27, 2017.
By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The Dylan Barnett Era came to an end this summer when the young, upcoming soccer coach took a position at Southern Mississippi. Barnett was the second soccer coach in Munford High School history leading the 2016 Lady Cougars to a record winning streak and a 14-3-1 mark winning the District 13-3A title. Now the reigns of Munford Soccer has been handed to Stan Jamscek. The Jamscek Era is off to a good start with the Lady Cougars improving to 8-2 overall after winning 5-0 over the Millington Lady Trojans Tuesday night at the USA Stadium Complex. “I feel very good actually about our start,” he said. “I think we’re finally getting together. This is my first year here. I came for Bethel University. It’s my first year with this group of girls. So I’m trying to develop the program for the long run. So far so good. They are very coachable. They listen. I’m happy.” After 10-games, the Lady Cougars have only suffered one defeat in the new-look District 14-3A. Munford joined the likes of Arlington, Brighton, Dyer County, Bolton and Cordova in the reformed league. “As far as the district tournament, we have a chance as long as we play a good game Thursday against Arlington,” Jamscek said. “We’ll see how that goes. Then we’re going to prepare for the first round and then try to go to the finals. As long as we stay injury-free, we’ll be fine.” Before the showdown with Arlington in Munford, the Lady Cougars traveled down to play the rival Lady Trojans. Munford knew the Lady Trojans would present a challenge and a chance for improvement. “We did pretty well today,” Millington Head Coach William Carter noted. “We dropped to these guys last year 10-0. Today it was 5-0. We were aggressive the entire game and went after them.” Millington’s strategy played right into the main purpose of Jamscek. “The goal was to keep the ball and work on formation,” he acknowledged. “We wanted to work on tactical movement of the ball when we pass. We wanted to work on moving the ball into open space and decisions once we got there. “Defense it was more about possession and position inside the formation,” he continued. “I really didn’t care about the score. I told them, ‘Don’t worry about the score. Let’s get better — passing and possessions.’ I think they did very well today.” When it came time to score goals in the game Munford received the first point from Kate Steppe. The Lady Cougars’ advantage grew to 2-0 before halftime when Demis Brown blasted a shot into the net. Then it was Steppe and Brown on the attack again in the second half scoring another goal each to make the tally 4-0 Munford’s final goal came when Maiya Reed scored on a breakaway. Reed took the shot in stride and got it passed the Millington goalie Lanette Carbajal Although Munford tallied 5 goals, Carbajal had a solid performance stopping several shots throughout the contest with diving saves, leaping grabs and well-timed blocks. Carter said Millington’s defense had performed well the last two games against Munford and Harding Academy. The Lady Trojans were defeated 3-0 against Harding Academy in Memphis.
“In our last two games of the regular season I want to see our offense get back in stride,” he said. “Our defense has been playing well. They’re in good shape. But I want to see our offense more aggressive and back on the attack.”
