FAYETTEVILLE -- Leo Araujo turned a slow start for the Springdale boys' soccer team into a blazing finish Tuesday.
Araujo and his Red Bulldogs' teammates were unable to break through offensively in the first half against Fayetteville and found themselves forced to play from behind in the key 7A-West Conference match. But Araujo took it upon himself to provide the scoring punch for Springdale, breaking free past the Fayetteville defense twice in the second half to spark a 2-1 come-from-behind win at Harmon Stadium.
"I was really pleased with the effort in the second half," Springdale coach D.J. Beeler said. "I wasn't pleased with the way we started, but there's some things we were able to take correct in the second half and we were able to be a bit more dangerous.
"And luckily a player (Araujo) who didn't have the best first half turned it around and had two big goals in the second half. That's what you want to see out of your kids. You want to see the character and see them respond to adversity and challenges and that's what we did."
Fayetteville (10-9, 6-7 7A-West) handled some early offensive attack from Springdale, then took possession control for much of the first 40 minutes. Noah Sarkin gave the Purple'Dogs their 1-0 lead with 4 minutes, 36 seconds remaining before halftime on a head shot on goal to give Fayetteville the momentum entering the break.
But the problem for Fayetteville was keeping it up the entire match. Araujo scored the tying goal with 23:16 left in regulation, then got past the entire Fayetteville defense on a long breakaway for the go-ahead score with 10:40 remaining.
"That's been our problem this year," Purple'Dogs coach Steve Oliver said. "We don't play for 80 minutes. Tonight we get beat on a long ball, on a punt down field and we're out of position.
"And that's been our problem, making the wrong decisions at the wrong time."
Both teams are back in action Thursday. Springdale (11-6-1, 7-5) hosts Springdale Har-Ber and Fayetteville will host Bentonville.
Girls
Fayetteville 5, Springdale High 0
Despite just one goal before halftime, Fayetteville controlled the match throughout and then went on the offensive attack following intermission in an easy victory against the Lady Red'Dogs on Tuesday at Harmon Stadium.
"It's not like we were upset with the first half," Fayetteville coach Joe Thoma said. "We just talked about going out there in the second half and finishing and that's what we did.
"Berklie (Young) went out there in about the first 40 seconds it seemed like and got a goal and then it was good to get to five goals overall."
Falon Hanson scored for Fayetteville (14-4-1, 10-2 7A-West) in the first half and Young, Ellie Breden, Avery Tubb and Myra Tubb rounded out the second-half scoring.
Sports on 05/06/2015