FORT SMITH — Conway coach Matthew Page told his players prior to Thursday’s first-round state tournament match that it would take each every one of them to advance to Friday. And it nearly happened, literally.
The Wampus Cats outlasted two-time defending state champion Bentonville High, 2-1 (8-7 PK). Conway moves on to face Springdale Har-Ber, the 7A-West’s No. 1 seed, at 2 p.m. today at Mayo-Thompson Stadium on the Fort Smith Northside campus.
“That was crazy, man,” Page said. “I’ve had one more crazy match like that, but that was the craziest. To go that deep into PKs is crazy. This went above and beyond.”
Page, then the coach at Greenbrier, won the only other marathon match he’s been a part of. His Greenbrier club, a 4-seed, knocked off Central Arkansas Christian, a 1-seed, in a golden goal scenario.
Storms in the River Valley dictated pace of play as the third game of the day got under way. Less than 12 minutes into the match, with Conway leading 1-0 behind Brooks Thomason’s goal, lightning halted play for an hour and a half. Following the stoppage in play, Conway took the 1-0 lead into halftime.
But once the teams returned to the field for the second half, lightning struck again, delaying the match another 48 minutes. Three hours after the match began, second-half play picked up. The Wampus Cats appeared in control throughout and on the verge of handing Bentonville its fourth shutout loss in its last five matches.
One final chaotic surge by the Tigers, though, resulted in Harrison Dickerson’s game-tying goal with 45 seconds to play in regulation. Two 10-minute overtime periods later, a winner still had not been decided, leading to 10 thrilling rounds of penalty kicks.
“We’re a big PK team,” Page said. “In the last two years, we’re 10-2 in games decided by PKs. It seems to always end in a tie and we go to penalty kicks. I don’t know (how we end up in PKs). These guys can’t tell you either. It’s just one of those things. We practice them all the time just for this right here.”
Both sides found the net on their opening four penalty kicks. In the fifth round, Bentonville was stuffed, leaving Conway needing just one more goal to grab a win, but the kick sailed well over the crossbar. The teams each scored on their following three kicks before the Tigers were turned away on their final two attempts. Conway’s Leo Hernandez netted the winning goal.
Bentonville’s season came to a close at 9-7-1. The Wampus Cats moved to 11-10-1 with the win and will face Har-Ber, who they knocked off two seasons ago in Cabot, today for a spot in Saturday’s semifinals.
“(Har-Ber) is a great team, they’re coached very well,” Page said. “They’ve got a lot of great players.”
ROGERS HERITAGE 5,
FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 3
The War Eagles scored three times in a six-minute span early in the second half Thursday to run away from Fort Smith Southside in the opening match of the 7A boys state soccer tournament.
Pedro Garcia, who also capped the first half with a goal, kicked off the scoring spree with a goal less than seven minutes into the second half. Erol Banuelos and Ivan Salinas then tacked on goals two minutes apart to push Heritage’s lead to 5-0.
Southside (11-13) tacked on three goals – one penalty kick – in the final 25 minutes of the match after Heritage removed a number of its starters. Heritage improves to 13-5 overall and moves on to face host Fort Smith Northside today at 10 a.m.
SPRINGDALE HIGH 2,
LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL 0
The Red’Dogs (16-5) cruised to an opening-round win over the Tigers (6-13) Thursday at Mayo-Thompson Stadium.
Jessie Gomez struck first for Springdale, scoring the lone goal of the first half just more than 18 minutes in. Springdale sophomore Jose Vega then tacked on another goal midway through the second half to set the final score.
Springdale advances to face Little Rock Catholic today at 4 p.m.
BRYANT 2, VAN BUREN 0
Bryant earned a quarterfinals matchup with Rogers High today at noon behind a shutout win against the Pointers at Mayo-Thompson Stadium.
Andy Doonan got the scoring started for Bryant midway through the first half. His goal was all the Hornets would need, but teammate Riky Barrientos scored with seven minutes, 31 seconds to play to set the final score.
Bryant improved to 12-7-1 on the season while Van Buren’s comes to a close at 7-17.