FAYETTEVILLE -- Lauren Holly was supposed to have two teammates help her rush the net as Victoria Mitchell launched a shot.
Instead, the Bentonville junior made the most of it alone as she turned the play into a first-half goal and propelled the Lady Tigers to their fourth Class 7A girls state soccer championship in five years with a 3-0 victory Friday at Razorback Field.
Mitchell kicked from the right side where the ball deflected off the hands of Cabot's freshman goalkeeper Maggie Martin. Holly only had to make a small adjustment before she put the ball into the net with 12:25 left in the first half to give Bentonville (20-4-1) a 1-0 lead.
"I had a wonderful cross that started from the back and came all the way through," Holly said. "All the girls connected great, and I happen to be at the end of that ball. I was very blessed and lucky to be in that position. It came right to me.
"I was happy to finish it for my team because they deserved it. You don't think about it at the time; it just happens. I didn't believe I had scored until the all the girls came running."
Bentonville entered the state tournament as the second seed from the 7A-West Conference. The Lady Tigers used a balanced attack and maintained an aggressive style throughout the match while the ball remained on their side of their field. Abby Stolt gave Bentonville an insurance goal from short range with 9:42 remaining, before Alyssa Carlson scored in traffic with 2:28 left.
"This is very gratifying," Bentonville Coach Kristina Henry said. "We emphasized from the beginning this was going to be a team effort, and we asked a lot of our players. They took a lot of guff from us, and we pushed them and pushed them. They came together and it paid off.
"It was attack, attack, attack -- put them on their heels and try to get something early. It probably didn't come as early as I liked, but to get that early goal was good. Lauren just tucked that ball in nicely."
Bentonville's defense made things easy for goalkeeper Gabby Miller, who was named the most outstanding player. Four Lady Tigers defenders were back for protection when Cabot (20-5) got near the net, as the Lady Panthers never had a clean shot on goal.
"We had some technical issues on the ball," Cabot Coach Kerry Castillo said. "There was a lot of slipping and sliding. There was nothing Bentonville did that we didn't expect. We just had to execute.
"We had chances to get behind, but we didn't take advantage of them. It was kind of how the game goes."
Sports on 05/21/2016