FAYETTEVILLE -- Several matches have gone against Fayetteville in 7A-West Conference play so far this season despite the Bulldogs hanging close in almost every league match.
On Thursday, Fayetteville finally saw another strong effort lead to a positive result.
The Purple'Dogs were solid from start-to-finish and didn't allow missed opportunities to cost them in the end. Instead, Fayetteville (7-7-1, 4-6 7A-West) finished off this match strong, getting two quick stops in sudden-death before finishing off a 4-2 won on penalty kicks victory against conference-leading Springdale High at Harmon Stadium.
"All the credit goes to the guys," Fayetteville coach Steve Oliver said. "They went out and played for 80 minutes. And really this was our same story as the whole year. We've played well in every 7A-West match. But we were able to finish this one off and get a couple of PKs and (goalkeeper) Colton (Farley) made a couple of stops."
Fayetteville and Springdale (14-4, 8-2) both had scoring opportunities early in the first half. But the best scoring chance on either side came in the final 15 minutes of regulation when a foul called on the Red'Dogs led to a free kick for Fayetteville.
That shot was blocked away, however, as the two teams would settle for a 0-0 tie to end regulation.
"I thought (Fayetteville) came out and had more opportunities in the first half," Springdale coach DJ Beeler said. "We came back and played better in the second half, I thought, and I'm not sure about that penalty. I wasn't able to see it but we just we're able to finish in the final third."
Fayetteville entered the match 0-2 in matches which went to PKs. But just playing in a sudden death finish might have been an advantage as Springdale was playing its first match decided by PKs.
The Red'Dogs missed on their first two PKs, one blocked away by Farley and the second high off the top post.
Fayetteville was able to put the match away by successfully scoring on all four on its PK attempts, with Josh Belford closing out the match.
"This might be good for us down the road," Beeler said. "Fayetteville is a better team than their record and they've been in some PKs. So in a weird way this might might help us."
Fayetteville is back at home Tuesday to host Springdale Har-Ber, while Springdale is at Bentonville.
Sports on 04/22/2016