After not playing in Friday's conference opening loss to No. 6 Jones, Bear Soccer's Rory Humphrey was hungry to make an impact at home Tuesday against East Central.
 
And that he did.
 
The sophomore from Flowood scored both of Southwest's goals as the Bears hung on late topping the Warriors 2-1 for their first conference win.
 
"Me sitting out for the Jones game really hurt me," Humprhey said. "In this game I wanted to prove that we wanted this game and move forward."
 
Both the Bears (4-1-2, 1-1) and the Warriors jockeyed for position early on with neither side scoring through the first 45:00 of play.
 
It wasn't long into the second half before that trend was broken. About 5:00 in Humphrey notched his first score getting the ball away from a defender deep in East Central territory before rocketing it past the goalkeeper putting Southwest up 1-0.
 
Not even a minute later, Humphrey shined again with another goal, this time on an assist from Brayden Green giving the Bears a 2-0 advantage.
 
The Warriors fought to get back into the contest and cut into Southwest's lead with about 16 minutes to go, cutting the lead in half at 2-1.
 
But the Bears held on in the end preserving the one goal win.
 
After the match, Southwest head coach Zach Mills said that Humphrey stepping up and leading the team was huge, providing a much-needed spark.
 
"It was huge because he couldn't play against Jones and in the first half (tonight), he was struggling, maybe getting his feet back," Mills said. "It was nice to see him come out full speed in the second half and get those two early goals." 
 
The Bears hit the road for their next contest taking a trip up to Senatobia on Friday at 3 p.m. to face Northwest Mississippi.