By Thomas Sellers Jr.
For four years Dylan Burnett would take to the Brighton Stadium field wearing the black and red of the Brighton Cardinals. Whether it was football or soccer, Burnett experienced several moments of joy and success. He was looking for the same results last Thursday night when he returned to his old stomping grounds, now wearing rival maroon, gold and white. Burnett returned to his alma mater as the Head Coach of the Munford Lady Cougar Soccer team and watched his girls defeat the Brighton Lady Cardinals 7-0. “It was different coming back here as a coach vs. a player,” Burnett said. “The last time I stepped on this field I was a player. It was my senior year playing soccer, spring of 2010. It was kind of emotional at first standing here during the National Anthem. Just thinking about all the times, not only with soccer, but with my football teams as well. “But it feels great, 7-0,” he added. “You can’t complain. We got to throw in our entire team. A lot of our younger girls got to go in. Rachel, a sub came in and scored two goals. Overall, it was a great team win.” The path toward victory in his return to Brighton started quickly with four first half goals. Matti Ping assisted on an own goal to make the score 1-0 early. Ping assisted on the second goal setting up Morgan Self. The lead grew to 3-0 when Self scored again taking a pass from Kasey Moore. And the Lady Cougar advantage was 4-0 at the break when Ping tallied her third assist of the night finding Erin Detter for a goal. Munford score three more goals in the second half staring with Lyndsie Ralyea. Lady Cougar goalie Taylor Savage took a break from stopping Lady Cardinals attempts to drive a free kick down the field that Ralyea placed into the net to make the score 5-0. The final two goals of the night came courtesy of Rachel Davenport. The junior was assisted by Detter and Moore to make the final 7-0 over their District 13-3A rival. “It gives our girls some confidence,” Burnett said. “The front half our schedule has been very, very tough. We’re playing some tough teams. And for our girls to come to our rival school and pull out a 7-0 win is a great confidence booster. “We’re going into Memphis next week playing White Station, Ensworth and Hutchinson,” he added. “Another three games in a row which will be a tough slate for us. But this will give us some confidence and we got some goal scorers feeling pretty good. This is going to transition into next week.” Burnett said it was good to be back home and get a league win heading into another tough stretch of the schedule.
“For any of the girls or anybody on the outside looking in thinking this is the typical Munford, it’s not,” he concluded. “This is a new era for us. We’re bringing some heat. We’re bringing heat.”
