Jackson girls soccer team blanks Poplar Bluff in district semis

~ The Indians reached the district title game with a 3-0 victory

The Jackson girls soccer team is sticking to the strategy of taking one game at a time this spring.

The Indians, who saw their streak of nine consecutive district titles come to an end with a semifinal loss last season, picked up a 3-0 win over Poplar Bluff in a Class 3 District 1 semifinal at home Monday.

"We wanted to make sure that we were only thinking of this game and this game only," Jackson co-coach Justin McMullen said. "I reminded them of last year, which I really didn't need to. But I just wanted to reinforce that a little bit. It may have gave us a little more energy as far as making sure our focus was there."

The Indians (13-7) will face Northwest in the district title game at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The Mules ended the year with a 9-12 record.

Jackson got on the board with 12 minutes, 16 seconds left in the first half.

Senior Victoria Smith sent in a direct kick from about 30 yards out that was deflected by senior Erin Eakens. The ball crossed up Poplar Bluff sophomore goalkeeper Courtney Raulston and went in to her left.

"Any time a ball bounces inside the box, it's tough as a goalie," Poplar Bluff coach Jamie Waddell said. "I thought they had a few of them in the second half I felt like they would deflect. I honestly don't know if [the first goal] deflected off somebody or not. It looked like it did just by our reaction."

It was a set piece orchestrated by McMullen when he saw the situation.

"We were hoping to send the ball in that was dangerous on target," McMullen said. "It seemed to do the right things and it deflected off one of our players. We put [Eakens] in there for that situation."

The goal gave Jackson a needed boost after both teams came out flat.

"We didn't come out as quick as I wanted to," McMullen said. "But I felt like it was a part of the jitters of the playoffs. I felt like as the game went on, we settled into a flow of the game and we were a little more fluid with our passing. Our communication got better as the game wore on as well."

Jackson applied pressure to start the second half and broke through for its second goal with 17:20 to play. Sophomore Hailey Mouser pounded a ball past Raulston in front of the goal mouth after sophomore Alexa Kelpe fed her the ball.

Jackson tacked on a goal with 26 seconds left when Smith earned her second point of the game with a goal. Eakens got her second point of the game with the assist.

Jackson outshot Poplar Bluff 17-0. Raulston made 14 saves for the Mules.

"To be quite honest, I felt like our forwards defended well, and that's where the defending starts," McMullen said. "I felt like our defending from our midfield and winning balls in the air was fantastic. Any balls that got loose, I felt our defense did a good job of keeping things under control back there."