Mississippi Brilla FC Finishes Season With Victory Over Houston
Mississippi Brilla FC ended their season Saturday, July 19, defeating the last place Houston Leones by a score of 6-2. With the win, Brilla, who was eliminated as a playoff contender several weeks ago after their loss to the El Paso Patriots, finished the season 7-6-3.
Mississippi dominated the game early on, with Houston never getting a good look at the goal until late in the second half. Four minutes into the game, Phillip Buffington scored on a pass from Ousmane Coulibaly, making it his team-leading eighth goal of the season.
Brilla’s second and third goals came at the 14th minute and 37th minute, both by Tripp Harkins. In the 40th minute, Coulibaly scored on a free kick, helping Brilla finish the first half 4-0.
Brilla experienced a scoring drought at the start of the second half, not adding another goal until the 68th minute when Dwyane Demmin flicked a Jacob Lawrence header into the net.
Houston finally scored in the 71st minute with Luis Bernal scoring on a penalty kick. In the 90th minute, Bernal would give Houston their second goal of the game with a breakway shot in the corner of Brilla’s net. Mississippi’s final goal of the
game came from substitute Paul Babba, assisted by Buffington. With the loss, Houston fell to 3-11-2.
Brilla also won their second-to-last game of the season, July 18, defeating the Baton Rouge Capitals on the road, 3-1.
Mississippi’s scorers were Coulibaly with one goal and Michael Lindsay with two. Baton Rouge’s only scorer was Ricardo Santos, who scored in the 15th minute off a pass from Gino Ray. With the victory, Mississippi knocked the Capitals out of playoff contention.
For more information and the latest updates on Mississippi Brilla FC, the web address is http://www.msbrillafc.org/.
* photo of Brilla's Phillip Buffington courtesy of the Mississippi Brilla web site.