Playing West Lauderdale High School last Tuesday, Northeast Lauderdale High School knew it was possibly facing the toughest challenge it would have during the regular season.

As if drawing the defending MHSAA Class 4A state champion wasn’t enough, the Lady Knights were also playing inspired from heavy hearts after fellow West Lauderdale student Bradley House was killed in a car accident over the weekend. 

Northeast Lauderdale lost the match 11-1, deflating the Lady Trojans players’ spirits, and handing the team its first loss of the season.

“We had a really rough game Tuesday night,” Lady Trojans head coach Candice Maloney said. “Part of it was because we didn’t bring our A game. We played flat-footed; we played stagnant; we kind of fell apart as a team. Some of the teams we played leading up to the game, we’ve blown out, so we weren’t prepared to play a tougher team yet.”

Looking to shake off Tuesday’s disappointing performance, Northeast Lauderdale (7-1) returned to action Friday evening. The Lady Trojans did just that, their redemption coming with a 1-0 home victory over Newton County High School (4-2-1).

Maloney said after Wednesday’s and Thursday’s practices, she felt confident in her team’s ability to bounce back from the lopsided loss.

“We recovered in practice this week; we worked hard, and we ran a lot to get back into shape,” Maloney explained after the win. “I think it paid off tonight.”

Northeast Lauderdale’s lone goal came off the foot of senior captain Hannah Braswell.

“There was a collision with the goalie, and the ball popped out,” Braswell said. “I knew the goalie was out of the goal, so I just knew that I had to get a good shot, make it on frame and capitalize on the opportunity.”

Braswell’s goal occurred 14:50 into the first half, and was all Northeast Lauderdale needed to secure the win. She said she and her teammates quickly dispatched Tuesday night’s game from their memories.

“We knew this was a big game,” she said. “We knew we had to come back from that tough loss, and had to get a win under our belt in district play.” 

After Tuesday’s sluggish performance, an amplified Northeast Lauderdale team showed up Friday. The Lady Trojans were aggressive on offense, ending the contest with 18 shots on goal. Newton County head coach Sam Wilson said his goalkeeper, Olivia Clark, had an impressive performance.

“She’s been playing very well all year, and she keeps us in a lot of games,” Wilson said. “We were just unfortunate to give up that little miscommunication down there, and that’s what ended up being the difference in the game tonight.”

Maloney said Friday’s win not only exorcized Tuesday’s demons, but it also placed Northeast Lauderdale in the thick of the district race.

“It puts us at 1-1 in the district now,” Maloney said. “We face Quitman on Tuesday night, and then Northeast Jones on Friday. If we can pull out wins, we’ll have a good shot at making the playoffs this year.”

NORTHEAST BOYS 3, NEWTON COUNTY 2

Chap Pope, Dalton Rodgers and Hunter Garrett all scored goals for Northeast Lauderdale as the Trojans completed the sweep Friday night.

The Trojans rose to 6-5 on the season.