BENTONVILLE — Bentonville’s players watched Friday night as a few of their shots hit every part of the goal except the back of the net.
If only the goal was a few inches larger.
Roberto Castro and Jorge Gonzalez scored two goals each, and Springdale High benefited from several Bentonville shots that sailed a bit wide in a 4-1 win at the Tiger Athletic Complex.
“They definitely had their chances, and I think that the difference was we were finishing a little bit better tonight,” Springdale boys soccer coach D.J. Beeler said. “But we were on our heels for a good part of the game defending, and I give them a lot of credit for making things difficult on us.”
Castro continued his recent dominance by scoring two more goals, including a breakaway shot with 10 minutes, 57 seconds remaining that put the Bulldogs (15-2-1, 5-0 7A/6A-West Conference) ahead by three goals.
Springdale took a 1-0 on the junior’s first goal with 33:32 left in the first half, and with Gonzalez matching his teammate goal for goal, the Bulldogs never trailed during Bentonville’s Senior Night.
However, the Tigers (5-8-2, 1-4) forced the Bulldogs to pick up their intensity after sophomore Connor Hanus tied the score at 1-1 with a shot that bounced off the crossbar with 27:11 remaining in the first half.
The referees initially didn’t give Hanus credit for the goal, but after briefly conferring, they changed the ruling and called it a goal. Bentonville had a few more shots hit the post, though they didn’t go in.
“The score line doesn’t do it justice at all. I mean, they’ve taken their chances. We’ve been a bit unfortunate,” Bentonville coach Mike Devaney said. “We’ve had two bounce off the crossbar.
“It’s just been a bit of a story of our season. We’ve just not been fortunate, shall I say, in front of goal.”
Gonzalez gave Springdale the lead for good with his first goal with 13:58 remaining in the first half, and his second goal after halftime was part of three unanswered scores by the Bulldogs.
“It was just a good response on our behalf,” Beeler said. “And that’s what you want as a coach out of your kids is to see them respond the correct way to adversity, and I think that we did that tonight.”
Springdale 2 2 — 4 Bentonville 1 0 — 1 First Half Spring — Castro, 33:32. Bent — Hanus, 27:11. Spring — Gonzalez, 13:58. Second Half Spring — Gonzalez, 24:12. Spring — Castro, 10:57.
GIRLS BENTONVILLE 7, SPRINGDALE 1
Lauren Cowgur scored a pair of goals as Bentonville (11-3-1, 5-0) remained undefeated in the 7A/6AWest with the lopsided win over Springdale (9-4-2, 1-4).
The Lady Tigers led 4-0 before Brittany Jurgens scored the Lady Bulldogs’ lone goal on a pass by Kyrah Pollard with 22:30 remaining.
“The first half we just had some great pace going forward,” Bentonville girls soccer coach Kristina Henry said. “We outworked them a little bit and just had some things that we’ve been working on in practice that came together.”