BENTONVILLE — Fayetteville staked its claim to at least a share of the 7A-West Conference girls soccer championship, battling to a regulation tie before two saves by goalkeeper Gracie Cape in the penalty kick period led to a 4-2 PKs victory over Bentonville on Friday night.
While the victory guaranteed the Lady Bulldogs of no worse than a tie for the conference title, winning a piece of the championship wasn’t the top priority for the Fayetteville players on Friday.
“We worked so hard to (beat Bentonville) and this is what we wanted,” senior forward Gabbie Foster said. “This is what we’ve been working for all season long, this game right here and I’ve so proud of everybody.
“This is what we wanted and this is what we got.”
Fayetteville (15-3-1, 13-1 7A-West) jumped in front 1-0 in the first half just over 20 minutes in when Foster slipped past the Bentonville defense and just snuck a goal across the line. The Lady Bulldogs controlled much of the first 40 minutes but settled for the 1-0 lead at intermission,
Bentonville (15-5, 12-1) went right on the attack and took advantage of some early second-half calls to gain momentum.
A penalty called against Fayetteville set up a free kick for Bentonville in the 45th minute. After what appeared to be a free kick miss, Cape was called for leaving the box early. The Lady Tigers were then given a second free kick attempt which was successful for the 1-1 tie.
Just minutes later, Anna Passmore’s attempt with 34:42 remaining bounced off colliding Fayetteville defenders into the net for a 2-1 Bentonville lead.
But while the Lady Tigers stormed back out of halftime to take control, Fayetteville settled back down and got a free kick of its own from Bailey Lindsey with 27:45 remaining to tie things back up at 2-2.
From there on, it was back and forth with no team giving in.
In the first meeting of these two teams, a 0-0 tie resulted in a Bentonville win in PK’s. But Friday, the PK’s went Fayetteville’s way as Cape quickly set the tone blocking away Bentonville’s first try with a diving stop.
Fayetteville stayed ahead the rest of the way in the PK’s and rushed the field after sealing the win, as every member of the current Lady’Dog team picked up their first-ever victory against Bentonville.
“Somebody had a shirt on up here that said eight straight conference champs,” Fayetteville coach Joe Thoma said. “I mean football, soccer, track, just everything has to go through these guys (Bentonville) up here.
“We’ve been thinking about that all year and this is a great Bentonville team. We only let three goals in all year and hopefully we’ll see them again. I know Cabot and Bryant will have something to say about that but hopefully it’ll be us two seeing each other at the end.”
Bentonville still plays one more conference match against Rogers High on Monday, but Thoma said he believes Fayetteville locked up the No. 1 seed for the Class 7A Tournament with Friday’s victory, dropping Bentonville to the No. 2 seed.
In the boy’s match, Fayetteville defeated Bentonville, 3-0. The Bulldogs have already been eliminated from postseason contention.
Vernon Tarver can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter@NWAVernon.
FAYETTEVILLE 3, BENTONVILLE 2