Soccer: Siloam Springs Girls Edge Rogers

SILOAM SPRINGS -- Practice paid off Wednesday afternoon for the Siloam Springs girls soccer team.

The Lady Panthers converted a late goal in the 69th minute for the game's only tally in a 1-0 win against Rogers High at Glenn W. Black Stadium.

How they scored

GIRLS

Siloam Springs 1, Rogers High 0

Rogers High^0^0^—^0

Siloam Springs^0^1^—^1

Second Half

Siloam Springs — Harp, 11:51

The win snapped Siloam Springs' four-game losing streak and should benefit the Lady Panthers (9-9, 2-3) tremendously in the Class 6A power ratings.

The Lady Panthers will get 24 points for beating Rogers -- a 7A school -- plus extra points from Rogers' three conference wins.

"Huge win," said Siloam Springs coach Jason Bowen. "Point-wise for us in the 6A-South Conference, I think it will probably put us in second place for right now, and then we'll see from there how we do from here on out."

The Lady Panthers scored the game's only goal with 11 minutes, 51 seconds remaining in the second half.

Freshman midfielder Mayce Lance went after a ball with a Rogers defender down the sideline. Lance slipped inside with possession of the ball, drove the post and centered back to the six-yard box where sophomore Khenli Harp was waiting for the goal.

It was Harp's fourth goal of the season and Lance's third assist. It was Siloam Springs' second goal scored in the last four games.

"We practice it all the time," Bowen said. "Drive the ball low to the post and slide it back in front of the keeper's face and hope that someone's there to finish it. Today we did. We didn't poke it high or wide. We were composed and we did it right.

"That's the thing we talked about from our earlier games is being opportunistic. Against good soccer teams, you don't get many good opportunities, and you need to finish them. Tonight we did."

Rogers head coach Taylor Vaccaro said the Lady Mounties didn't do a good enough job on defense on the scoring play.

"That's what happens whenever you mess around with the ball on defense," Vaccaro said. "You've got to clear it and get it out."

The Lady Panthers were unable to take advantage of a strong win in the first half and played into the wind in the second half. But the Lady Mounties weren't able to muster many scoring opportunities either.

"I think we possessed it very well," Vaccaro said. "We just didn't capitalize on our chances. This is the classic story of when you don't capitalize on your chances, bad things can happen."

Siloam Springs goalkeepers Bailei Brown and Anna Claire Lewis combined on the shutout for Siloam Springs.

Sports on 04/24/2014

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