Searcy girls’ counter a checkmate vs. Siloam Springs

SILOAM SPRINGS -- A potential scoring play for Siloam Springs turned into the game winner for Searcy on Friday in the Class 5A girls state soccer tournament.

Searcy junior Mary Daniel scored on a counter attack with 54.3 seconds left for the game's only goal as the Lady Lions knocked off the host Lady Panthers 1-0 at Panther Stadium.

Siloam Springs had set up for a corner kick and brought in extra personnel as the clock ticked down to the final minute. There was a scrum in front of the Searcy goal, and junior Chandler Meadows played the ball ahead to Daniel.

Daniel got behind the Siloam Springs defense and beat keeper Regan Riley for the score.

"First one to make a mistake wins the game," Searcy Coach Larry Stamps said. "That's a great pass right there. I was looking here and all of the sudden [Meadows] threads the needle, and I'm tickled to death."

Searcy (14-0) advances to today's semifinals against defending Class 5A champion Little Rock Christian.

After a first half that was mostly dominated by Searcy, the Lady Panthers (14-4-1) controlled the tempo in the second half.

"They made the adjustments at halftime, and I thought we came out very strong in the second half," Siloam Springs Coach Abby Ray said.

The Lady Panthers wanted to be aggressive on the final corner kick, Ray said.

"We had won the second half, were dominating the second half, so there's no way we were going to sit back and hope for the draw," she said. "We sent them up for the corner, and something we've talked about a lot this year is how deadly counter attacking with speed can be, and it happened against us. It's something we try to do ourselves."

BOYS

LR CHRISTIAN 1, SILOAM SPRINGS 1 (7-6 kicks)

Little Rock Christian outshot Siloam Springs in kicks from the spot to take a victory after a 1-1 draw in 100 minutes of soccer.

Siloam Springs junior goalkeeper Jedi Hunter had made a kick save on Little Rock Christian's seventh penalty kick, giving the Panthers a chance to convert for the win. Little Rock Christian keeper Charlie Gordon answered with a save of his own on Erik Gomez's shot to keep the game alive.

Joey Schroeder scored on the next kick for the Warriors to take a 7-6 lead, and Siloam Springs' Ronald Mancia missed wide right as the Warriors escaped.

Little Rock Christian (14-3) advances to today's semifinal against Russellville.

Warriors Coach Barry McCaskill praised his team's effort this season.

"We started the year 0-3 in nonconference, took our lumps and then found our stride once conference season started," McCaskill said. "We've been building throughout the year. Super proud of these guys. They didn't let the first three games dictate their year."

Siloam Springs (16-4) took a 1-0 lead late in the first half when Junior Garza scored off a deflected shot by Ben Stratman with just over three minutes left in the first half.

Less than eight minutes into the second half, Little Rock Christian tied it on a shot by Wyatt Thomas that hugged the back line before crossing in front of the net and into the far corner.

VAN BUREN 5, BATESVILLE 0

The Pointers (19-2) advanced to the other semifinal with a shutout over Batesville.

Pedro Rodriguez, Fernando Romero, Kyland Almond, Jose Zarate and Chris Melendez all scored goals.