Rogers High Girls
Lady Mounties Ready To Roll
The Lady Mounties are finally back at full strength and it showed last week. Rogers (5-5), which has had seven varsity players injured at times this season, defeated Springdale High and Van Buren to start 7A/6A-West Conference play at 2-0.
"It feels great to start out conference at 2-0, and these last two games were the first that we had all our varsity players," Rogers coach Taylor Hayes-Vaccaro said. "The injuries hurt us quite a bit in some of our games. We have played our two best games of the year in our first two conference games."
Mackenzie Muirhead, MC Childress, Allie James, Libby Ganoung and Madison Dake have sparked the Lady Mounties on the field. Dake had two goals in the Lady Mounties 5-1 win at Van Buren.
"Libby Ganoung and Madison Dake have great speed," Hayes-Vacarro said. "Madison has the ability to take over games."
Kiara Henry has come back from an injury and has been solid in goal.
"She is great back there," Hayes-Vacarro said. "She plays club soccer and she plays basketball, and that has really helped her with her hands. She is very athletic, and the girls have full confidence in her."
Springdale High Boys
Bulldogs Take Momentum Into Big Tourney
Springdale High bounced back from a disappointing penalty-kick shootout loss to Rogers High with an impressive 2-0 win over Siloam Springs on Friday.
The Bulldogs might be beginning to round into form. And that's good news, given their upcoming schedule.
Springdale (6-2-1, 1-1 7A/6A-West Conference) will compete in the prestigious Williamson County Versus Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., beginning Thursday. The Bulldogs are part of a loaded field that includes game-one opponent Franklin, Tenn., which is ranked as high as No. 5 in the nation.
"There's going to be a couple teams there ranked in the top 10 nationally," Springdale coach D.J. Beeler said. "We play at (Franklin's) place. So it's going to be a great experience for us. I'm hoping we can go there and get three games out of conference and just continue to grow and take steps forward. That's really the goal at this point."
Springdale's play in the Siloam win was encouraging as the Bulldogs were locked in from the start, took an early lead and maintained it, all areas in which they had previously struggled during a somewhat-inconsistent start to the season.
"I thought, from start to finish, we just looked really solid," Beeler said. "We were solid in possession. We attacked well. We defended well. We were organized. And it was just kind of a complete performance that we've been really searching for. I feel that maybe that Rogers loss kind of kick-started us a little bit and refocused us. That's my focus."
-- JIMMY CARTER • @NWAJimmy
Springdale High Girls
Lady Bulldogs Earn First Conference Win
Springdale High broke through for its first 7A/6A-West Conference win last night, a 2-0 victory over Siloam Springs at home.
The Lady Bulldogs (5-7, 1-1) got two early goals from senior Taylor Wyatt, then relied on strong defense from sophomore goalkeeper Tegan Hendrix and the rest of the defense, which was able to preserve the shutout.
"Siloam Springs is a good, solid team," Springdale High coach David McKellips said. "Very well coached. So this was a good win. We needed it. And now we're getting ready to move forward with the rest of our conference."
Springdale will get a week off from conference play, facing only Green Forest on the road Friday.
-- JIMMY CARTER • @NWAJimmy
Rogers Heritage
Lady War Eagles Need More Offense
The Rogers Heritage Lady War Eagles soccer team is looking for some offense as 7A/6A-West Conference play begins.
Heritage (2-4-1, 0-1 7A/6A-West) has been shut out in all four losses this season, including Wednesday evening's 1-0 loss at Fayetteville to kick off league play. The Lady War Eagles are still trying to figure out how to replace the 32 goals Ellen Lundy supplied a year ago. She has moved on to play soccer at Lipscomb University where she was the Atlantic Sun Conference Freshman of the Year in the fall.
"We need to mature," Lady War Eagles coach Craig Frank said. "The difference was my seniors were the playmakers and the set-up people. Now the sophomores have to be in the set-up and scoring roles. Gina Britton the senior that goes the farthest up the field. The rest are on defense.
"We've moved Raya Jones all over the field. She's more of a forward but we've asked her to play midfield or a defensive midfield role because of injuries. But that's what you're forced to do when you have injuries."
Hannah Markel, who played some as a freshman, could supply some offense. She had been sidelined until last week, after suffering a broken bone in her leg during a club soccer match in the fall. Markel should see some action Monday, Frank said.
The Lady War Eagles have a busy week, playing at Verdigris, Okla. on Monday, then traveling to Springdale Har-Ber on Wednesday for a conference match and hosting Nixa, Mo. on Friday.
Slow Start Dooms Heritage
Rogers Heritage could not recover from a slow start in Friday's 7A/6A-West Conference loss at Fayetteville.
The War Eagles (4-4-2, 0-1 7A/6A-West) fell behind 2-0, which included an own goal, in the first half and eventually fell 2-1. Heritage got on the board thanks to a goal from all-state forward Brian Banuelos, but couldn't not manage the tying goal despite several opportunities.
Heritage coach Franklin Jennings said his team was not ready to play at the beginning.
"It wasn't until the last 20 or 30 minutes that we turned it on," Jennings said. "We've talked about it for weeks, the importance of showing up ready to play for conference. Literally the last 20 minutes of the game were played in our attacking half of the field. We had more than a few shots on goal. We just couldn't capitalize. It's disappointing, but with that said we hope it's not going to keep us from our goal of contending for a conference title."
Heritage plays at Verdrigris, Okla., a team the War Eagles defeated in a tournament earlier this season, on Monday. The War Eagles play at Springdale Har-Ber in a conference match on Friday.
--PAUL BOYD•@NWAPAULB
Bentonville Girls
Lady Tigers Bounce Back From Loss
A match against a national power was not an ideal way for Bentonville's girls to return to action after a lengthy break.
The Lady Tigers dropped a 7-1 decision to Jenks, Okla., in the first round of the Heart of America Classic, which is being played at Tulsa (Okla.) Bishop Kelley. It was the first match in two weeks for Bentonville, which bounced back for a 3-0 victory over Norman, Okla., in a consolation match.
"Jenks is probably ranked in the top 10 nationally and is just a fantastic team," Bentonville coach Kristina Henry said. "We looked like a team that hadn't played in two weeks. We were sluggish and out of our system, but we bounced back and played much better in the second match, when there wasn't enough pressure."
Sophomore Melanie Matkins, who scored two goals in a 5-0 win over Ozark, Mo., in the Lady Tigers' last match before spring break, scored the only goal against Jenks and has become a dependable player.
"She's starting to understand her role on the team," Henry said. "She continues to get better, now that she has found her role on the team and started to connect with the other players."
The Lady Tigers (5-3-1) closed out play in the Heart of America Classic with a 2-0 loss Saturday afternoon to Edmond (Okla.) North.
Bentonville Boys
Tigers Remain Inactive
A lengthy break from action has become even longer for Bentonville's boys, whose 7A/6A-West Conference opener at Springdale Har-Ber was called off Friday because of a waterlogged field.
The Tigers (7-0-1) haven't played since a 1-0 nonconference victory March 20 at Fayetteville and aren't scheduled for another match until Friday, when they host Siloam Springs.
"The way things are working out, we will be off for three weeks before we play again," coach Mike Devaney said. "That's an unexpected long layoff, and it's not an ideal situation.
"We played well in our nonconference matches, and we looked forward to picking up where we left off. Now we've had this long layoff, and that's a concern."
Devaney said he didn't see some of his players for 10 days, even with the shortened spring break, but likes what he has seen since everybody returned for practice Monday.
"The biggest fear is having your players return from a break and not be fit and healthy," he said. "But we were able to get back into our rhythm, and the good thing is we were able to get in four good days of training.
"At this point of the season, you want your players to be able to maintain what they have done and stay sharp. After a while, though, practice starts to get old. They want to play games and see where we are at."
-- HENRY APPLE • @NWAHenry
Fayetteville Boys
Bulldogs Hold Off Heritage
Nicholas Kley provided the opening goal and Fayetteville held off a furious rally in the second half to open 7A/6A-West Conference play with a 2-1 win against Rogers Heritage on Friday at Harmon Stadium.
"The first conference match is always a big one," Fayetteville boys soccer coach Steve Oliver said. "It's always nice to start 1-0."
Oliver credited a balanced team attack on offense and stingy defense against the War Eagles for most of the match as the keys to the victory.
"We did O.K.," Oliver said. "We controlled about the first 45 minutes and then Heritage really came back with a fury, and we were glad to hold on."
Fayetteville (6-3, 1-0) visits Van Buren on Friday.
-- VERNON TARVER w@NWAVernon
Fayetteville Girls
Fayetteville Opens Conference With Win
A few missed opportunities on offense didn't stand in the way of victory Wednesday for the Lady Bulldogs, as Gabby Foster scored the only goal of the match to lift Fayetteville to a 1-0 win over Rogers Heritage in the 7A/6A-West Conference opener for both teams at Harmon Stadium.
"We were pretty offensive in that match," Fayetteville girls soccer coach Joe Thoma said. "We hit the post a couple of times and they cleared a few shots away. I thought we could have scored two or three more goals, but Gabby scored in the final 11 minutes so we were fortunate to get that and get out of there with a win."
Fayetteville (7-1, 1-0 7A/6A-West) continues to adjust its lineup, with hopes to settling in on a rotation now that conference play has begun.
"We're still trying to figure out a lineup that works best," Thoma said. "We've just got some young girls, but I proud of the way they're playing."
The Lady Bulldogs return to conference play Thursday at Van Buren. Fayetteville defeated Van Buren, 4-0, in a nonconference match earlier this year.
-- VERNON TARVER w@NWAVernon
Sports on 04/06/2014