NATCHEZ — The Adams County Christian School Rebels nearly shut down the Manchester Academy Mavericks 5-1 in the first round of the MAIS Class AA state playoffs Monday afternoon.

And the Mavericks’ only score came from an ACCS player.

The ball ricocheted off of Parker Rymer into the Rebels’ net for Manchester’s only score within the last 10 minutes of the game, making the score 3-1 at the time.

The second half was a shoot out for the Rebels after going into halftime ahead 1-0 on a Lester Wells’ goal.

Though that was the only score of the first half, it was only one-third of Wells’ hat trick Monday.

ACCS head coach Jimmy Allgood said he was proud of the way his players stepped up in the second half.

“Our guys came out very intense early in the contest,” he said. “Then we (started slacking) a little bit, but we got our game plan at half time, changed the formation a little and came out to play the last 40 minutes, and the scoreboard reflected that.”

The Rebels scored early in the second half on a goal by Justin Allgood at the 31:33 mark, and less than 10 minutes later, Dillon Galbreath slid down the field to kick in a goal that ricocheted off Manchester’s goalie.

Now ahead 3-0, Manchester finally had a chance to score when ACCS goalie Zach Pintard dove away from the goal to block a shot attempt.

With the goal open and the ball still in play, it was up to the Rebels’ back three, Noah Smith, Rymer and Hunter Lindsey to become the goalies until Pintard recovered, and they succeeded.

Allgood said the defense was solid Monday.

“The defensive back three locked down fantastic,” Allgood said. “They cleared the ball and got it out. Pintard has always played amazing, and the defense created the offense.”

But the Mavericks got lucky when Rymer ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time to give Manchester its only goal of the game, 3-1.

But ACCS made up for the mishap by scoring two more goals, both by Wells as he completed his hat trick to lead the Rebels to victory.

Allgood said his players must take the energy they had in the second half and intensify it for the remainder of their playoff run.

“What it’s going to take to win the next couple of games is to play 80 minutes of soccer,” he said.

The Rebels will play either Laurel Christian Academy or Chamberlain-Hunt Academy in the state semifinals at 2 p.m. Thursday.