DeQueen staves off Lady Wildcats 4-3

DeQueen scored the game-winning goal with about 15 minutes remaining in the second half Saturday and downed El Dorado's girls 4-3 in non-conference soccer action at Memorial Stadium. The Lady Wildcats fell to 2-1 on the season.

El Dorado opened the season last week with 8-0 wins over Warren and at Hamburg on Friday.

“Our girls, for some reason they were kind of flat today. It was a good game. It could've gone either way. I'm not really disappointed in their play that much,” said El Dorado coach Neville Matthews.

The Lady Leopards scored three of their goals on free kicks after restarts by the officials.

“I'm not going to blame the referees. It's not like I'm making excuses. They just got the win. That's all I want to say. Our guys played a little bit flat and DeQueen snuck by us,” said Matthews.

“I don't argue with referees. I let them make their decisions. I take what I get. Some of the calls were suspect. But I'll just say DeQueen was a better team today.”

El Dorado led 2-1 at the intermission after goals by Millee Mobley and London Ingram. DeQueen took a 3-2 lead before Caroline Meadows scored to tie the game.

Matthews credited DeQueen's Sara Victoriano for being the difference in the game.

“DeQueen has a little player, number 10. She's dominant. She's got some skills. I had to change my game plan up a little bit and mark her solid because she was very dominant.

“She was shooting from everywhere. She's a next level player. She walked through our defense like butter. I don't think we'll run into another player like that in conference.

Victoriano scored once on a free kick but Matthews said she had about five shots on goal in the game.

“I felt like my freshman Ingram came off the bench and she finally was able to shut down that number 10 that was giving us a hard time,” he said. “Normally, she's a striker but I played her in a midfield to hold that number 10 down. She did a great job. Once she came in the game, she wasn't effective anymore. I wish I'd made that decision earlier.”

Despite the loss, Matthews said the defeat will help his team more in the long run than the two blowout victories.

“I'm glad we took this loss now. I don't think playing (Friday night) had anything to do with it. The girls were flat, kind of went away from our game plan a little bit. We made some simple mistakes and it cost us,” he said.

“We needed to have a little more pressure. I've told them in the past, these big scores, 8and 9-nil, it doesn't impress me because it can give you a false sense of security. I'd rather you play well and score one goal than play bad and score 50.”

El Dorado travels to Hot Springs Lakeside for the conference opener on Tuesday.