ROGERS -- A momentary loss for Erika Orelanna-Aguilar eventually resulted in a victory for Springdale Har-Ber's girls Thursday afternoon.
The junior forward was in the right spot to pick up a deflected ball, and she scored the decisive goal in the Lady Wildcats' 2-1 victory over Fort Smith Northside during first-round action in the Class 7A state girls soccer tournament.
At A Glance
Class 7A Girls State Soccer Tournament
at Rogers
Thursday
Game 1 C4 Mount St. Mary 4, Springdale High 0
Game 2 W3 Springdale Har-Ber 2, C6 Fort Smith Northside 1
Game 3 W4 Fayetteville 3, C5 Cabot 0
Game 4 C3 Conway 7, W6 Rogers Heritage 2.
Today
Game 5 Mount St. Mary vs. W1 Bentonville, 10 a.m.
Game 6 Springdale Har-Ber vs. C2 Bryant, noon
Game 7 Fayetteville vs. C1 Fort Smith Southside, 2 p.m.
Game 8 Conway vs. W2 Rogers High, 4 p.m.
Saturday
Game 9 Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 10 a.m.
Game 10 Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, noon
Championship Game
at Razorback Field, Fayetteville
Game 11 Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, time and date TBD
Orelanna-Aguilar was engaged in a battle for the ball with teammate Annabelle Webber near the goal, and Webber took control of the ball first. Her shot was blocked, but the ball went directly to Orelanna-Aguilar, who placed the ball into the left side of the net with 7 minutes, 40 seconds left in regulation.
"I was really scared because I knew my friend was getting mad for trying to take the ball from her," Orelanna-Aguilar said. "I finally said I was just going to go for it. If I miss it, I miss it. When I made it, my heart dropped."
Har-Ber (15-9) picked up its only other goal in a similar fashion early in the first half. Megan LaMendola had her first shot on goal blocked, but she picked up the deflection and fired the ball back into the net with 37:36 left in the first half.
It remained that way until Northside (6-15-1) made the most of one of its rare scoring opportunities as Katelyn Gilkey discovered a crease in Har-Ber's back-row defense. Her kick from 15 yards out forced a 1-1 tie with 14:39 left in the first half, and it remained that way until Orelanna-Aguilar hit her goal, even though Har-Ber had chances to score.
"We have that one away, and that creates nervousness, stress and worry," Har-Ber coach Fabrizio Campagnola said. "Then you don't play your best.
"This was one of those games where you just have to win it somehow. It's not going to be pretty, but you just have to find a way to break that defense."
The win moves Har-Ber into today's noon quarterfinal match against 7A-Central runnerup Bryant, which had a first-round bye.
Mount St. Mary 4, Springdale High 0
Sterling Snape broke past Springdale's defense and broke a scoreless tie on her first-half goal as Mount St. Mary went on to open the tournament with a victory.
Snape's goal came on a 15-yard kick and provided the only scoring in the first half. The Belles (11-8-1) picked up two more by Ashley Suffridge in the second half, including one on a penalty kick at the 32:52 mark, while Rieves Payne also scored.
Springdale (8-13-1) had a chance to score early when Nayeli Contreras was inside the box with the goalie out of position, but her kick went wide left of the goal.
Fayetteville 3, Cabot 0
Fayetteville scored early in both halves of its match against Cabot to comfortably beat the Lady Panthers.
The Bulldogs scored the lone goal of the first half behind Myra Tubb's score in the 31st minute. After battling with Cabot's keeper for position, she chipped in a shot from a couple of yards away from the goal off a cross from a teammate.
Immediately after Tubb's goal, Cabot found itself with two opportunities to score with favorable matchups in the box, but Haley Woodward stopped both attempts to keep the Bulldogs' lead intact. Fayetteville's attack kept the pressure on Cabot the rest of the match, effectively limiting the Lady Panthers' scoring opportunities.
Georgia Templeton continued Fayetteville's early dominance, scoring at the 36:13 mark in the second half. She dribbled passed four Cabot defenders before sneaking in a shot behind the keeper on the right side of the goal.
It would not be the last time Templeton was involved in a goal for the Bulldogs. Less than 10 minutes from her goal, the forward set up Morganne Browning for a shot at the 26:33 mark off a corner kick. Browning scored off the well-placed assist, flicking the ball into the top right corner of the goal to put the Bulldogs up 3-0 and sealing the win for the team. Fayetteville advances to play Fort Smith Southside at 2 p.m. Friday.
Conway 7, Rogers Heritage 2
Conway secured its spot in the quarterfinals behind a trio of Lady Cats who scored two goals each.
KK Pavatt led the dominate Conway attack, netting two goals within the first eight minutes of the match. Her first came 22 seconds into the match on a breakaway run, rocketing a shot from more than 20 yards out, before scoring on another breakaway at the 32:56 mark.
Heritage responded with a goal of at the 20:02 mark. Grace Brackett got into some open space, beating two Conway defenders, before nailing a shot past the keeper from 15 yards out. The War Eagles would score one more time in the match behind Macie Bowman's goal at the 18:58 mark.
Gifte Pavatt and Mia Graff each scored for Conway before the first half ended, Gifte at the 16:02 mark and Graff at the 12:17 mark. The two also scored 40 seconds apart on back-to-back goals in the second half at the 33:54 and 33:14 mark to give the Lady Cats a commanding lead that Heritage would not come close to threatening.
The Lady Cats would score one more time before the clock ran out thanks to Hope Chagnon's goal. Chagnon weaved through the Heritage defense inside the goalkeeper's box before booting a shot to the bottom left corner of the goal.
Alex Nicoll contributed to this report.
Preps Basketball on 05/11/2018