CLASS 5A BOYS SOCCER

Rams finally break state finals drought

FAYETTEVILLE -- Hot Springs Lakeside had come up short in four previous trips to the boys state soccer championship game with Coach Chris Moses seeing the last three from the sideline.

But the senior-laden Rams finally turned the tables Saturday in claiming their first state title with a 4-3 victory over Valley View in the Class 5A finals at Razorback Field.

Lakeside (19-6-1) scored two early second-half goals, including an own goal by the Blazers, to take a 4-1 lead before holding off a late Valley View charge.

"It's like getting that monkey off your back," Moses said. "... You get here and it just never worked out. This year we got a pretty big lead and we just got tired and Valley View is a heck of a team. You've gotta give them all the credit, making a game out of it.

"It feels great for these guys. It's not me because I'll still be around, but it's these guys who's put in the work for four years and all these 17 seniors who won't have this opportunity again and finished it today."

Lakeside goalkeeper Devin Nieto helped keep the Valley View attack in check and earned Most Valuable Player honors. The junior finished with eight saves as the Blazers kept the pressure on with 28 shot attempts to just 15 for Lakeside.

"One of the things we talked about is we couldn't get behind them," Moses said. "We knew if we could just play hard defense and kinda mess their rhythm up a little bit maybe we could hold on. When we got the lead, I just felt really good. Devin's been great all tournament. All year he's been pretty phenomenal, but in the tournament he just stepped his game up a little bit higher, and he deserved the MVP."

The teams traded penalty kick goals in the first half, but Lakeside's Christian Ramirez scored only a minute after the Blazers had tied it to give the Rams a 2-1 lead with 19:08 left.

Valley View (21-4-2) didn't quit as Jesus Mendoza scored off a Weston Meyers assist midway through the second half to make it 4-2. Matthew Layton added a goal for the Blazers with 3:36 left, but the Rams were able to kill off the remaining time.

The Blazers misfired on several scoring chances early. That and other miscues were the difference, Valley View Coach Ron Teat said.

"Any time you can't finish early on, it does put you a little bit behind the 8 ball," Teat said. "We just made some mistakes that we hadn't made all year long. We make those mistakes early on and we're not sitting here in the championship game. It was easy down 4-1 to just quit, but we kept fighting back to give us a chance to tie it here at the end, maybe send it to overtime. I'm proud of them for that.

"We knew it was going to be back and forth and knew we couldn't make many errors and in the end, we made a few too many."

Sports on 05/20/2018

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