It was a big week for Brookhaven High soccer and head boy’s coach Aaron Ayers. On Thursday, playing on King Field, the Panthers did something that’s only happened a few times in program history, beat the Florence High Eagles.

Located in Rankin County, a stronghold of top soccer in the state, the Eagles won both the MHSAA 5A State Championships last year in both girls’ and boys’ soccer.

“We beat them two years ago on the road (1-0) and before that I don’t think we’d beaten them since the 1990s,” said Ayers after the win. “When I played here they’d beat us 8-0, but now we are competitive with them and the games are much closer.”

The 3-1 victory over their region rivals from Florence moved Ayers squad to 11-5-1 on the season. It avenged a 4-0 setback suffered at Florence on Dec. 17.

It wasn’t the only excitement of the week, as BHS battled back from a 3-0 halftime deficit on Tuesday to beat North Pike on penalty kicks after the match ended in a 3-3 tie.

On Monday, the Panthers lost 4-2 at home to the region leading South Jones High Braves.

Weather permitting, Brookhaven High is scheduled to play non-region opponents Bouge Chitto (Jan. 21) and Loyd Star (Jan. 23) next week. The Panthers will then wrap up region play with a trip to North Pike on Jan. 28 and a non-region home match against Murrah High on Jan. 30.

Brookhaven High senior Ethen Lopez showed again why he is one of the best soccer players in southwest Mississippi with all three goals in the win over Florence.

Lopez scored once against North Pike in the comeback and junior Crews Stewart led the way that night with two goals.

Sophomore Elijah Kilpatrick is a first-year starter in goal for BHS.

Florence won the opening girls’ match 2-0 on Thursday. The BHS girls and head coach Dustin Bairfield lost 4-1 on Monday to South Jones and then bounced back to blast North Pike 8-0 on Tuesday.

Sophomore Kylee Lopez scored twice against North Pike as did sophomore Eliza Smith. Sophomore Isabella Iles had a hat trick as her three goals moved her to 13 on the season, second behind only Smith and her 19 goals scored. Junior Hailey Breazeale added one goal for the BHS offense against the Jaguars.

Iles and Smith were both in on a pair of assists while Kenslie Bairfield picked up an assist as well. Iles scored against South Jones off an assist from Smith. 

Senior Olivia Smith starts at goalkeeper for the BHS girls, who are now 10-0-6 on the season.

Both Brookhaven High teams will qualify for the postseason that begins next month, hungry to pick up a program first playoff victory.