Stone wins 5A state title in OT thriller

MADISON - Peyton Phillips knew his role: Get to the back post in case the ball makes it through.

And sure enough it did.

With minutes remaining in the second overtime frame Saturday night, Stone's Mason Hunt made a late dash down the left flank. After giving the ball up to teammate Jonathan Taylor, Hunt got it back and sent it sailing across the Germantown goal mouth.

Phillips crashed, snapping the back of the net with what ended up being the game-winning 2-1 goal.

In jubilation, the sophomore charged the nearest corner flag, knocking it out of the ground with a flying karate kick. The celebration earned him a yellow card, but it was well worth it setting Stone High history as the first MHSAA Class 5A soccer champions.

"This means everything," Phillips said later, still gasping for breath from the celebration. "I just felt like kicking something. My adrenaline was going."

Even with the goal, the game was far from over in the 95th minute.

The Mavericks (12-4-4) ended up with two free kicks deep in Stone's territory. The first, keeper Truitt Smith made one of his eight saves on. The second didn't clear Stone's wall and time soon expired

"There are no words to describe it," Stone coach Scott Maddox said. "These boys, I've known, and I'm not just saying this, but I've known this was possible from the moment we started practice. These kids are what coaches dream about. They dream about coaching kids who are coachable. Every single one of these kids are. They didn't believe it for a long time.

"And a lot of people say, 'you're Stone County. You're not going to do anything.' Well, guess what?"

Germantown took an early 1-0 lead in the ninth minute. Nicholas Parsa dropped a free kick perfectly in front of Stone's goal and Ryoma Thomas, unmarked, beat the keeper.

Tavarus Breland responded four minutes later. A shot was deflected to Breland, who in turn fired his own on goal. The ball bounced off the Mavericks' keeper and barely trickled across the goal line.

"He didn't put a whole lot on it," Maddox said, "but we were fortunate."

Afterward, Maddox took part in the celebration with his players, capping his first season back at Stone High (21-1-1).

"There's just no words. I'm on top of the world right now," he said. "This is our first, but hopefully it won't be our last."

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 9:31 PM with the headline "Stone wins 5A state title in OT thriller ."