NLR, Northside scuffle to a draw

6A-CENTRAL GIRLS SOCCER FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE 0, NORTH LITTLE ROCK 0

FORT SMITH — The Fort Smith Northside Lady Bears stayed unbeaten in 6A-Central Conference play Tuesday night, but it wasn’t the result they hoped for at Mayo-Thompson Stadium.

Northside, the 6A-Central girls’ leader, played well. But North Little Rock was right there with them in a 0-0 draw in a defensive stalemate.

“This is just an off day for us,” Northside coach Mauricio Maciel said. “Everybody has those days. Hopefully we don’t have many more. We can play better than we did. We didn’t do some things we need to work on and can fix moving forward.”

North Little Rock (5-4-2, 1-2-2) was the more aggressive team to start the match. The Lady Charging Wildcats had the lone shot on goal in the first half off a free kick and out-shot Northside seven to three in the first 40 minutes.

“This is a good result for us,” North Little Rock coach Michael Klucher said. “The bus ride back will be pretty happy. That Northside team has a lot of talent everywhere on the field. We were proud to keep them out of the goal. We knew if we could battle, we could keep up with them.”

Tara Barnhart was a big part of North Little Rock’s defensive effort all game, as she won many balls thwarted several Northside attempts on offense. Mac Dellinger was in goal for North Little Rock and finished with a pair of saves. Graci Hardbarger was the keeper for Northside and also had two saves.

The switch flipped for Northside (4-0-2, 3-0-2) in the second half, as it shot the ball much more looking to break through. The Lady Bears had a 2-1 edge in shots on goal after the break and out-shot the Lady Charging Wildcats 9-6.

“We told them we needed to start that one over,” Maciel said. “I feel like the entire team was waiting for somebody else to take over. We needed a group effort. They did way better in the second half and rose to the occasion.”

Northside’s first shot on goal came off a free kick from Finley Baber, who almost scored a goal on her birthday. North Little Rock made the required save to keep it at 0-0 early in the second half.

Northside’s Rosa Centeno had a breakaway attempt for a shot on goal, but her ball couldn’t find the back of the net. Elena Centeno served a cross kick in the box to Rosa Centeno for another attempt that was nearly a goal with 10 minutes left. The Lady Bear’s last good attempt came with just 1:40 left. Elena Centeno nearly scored off a corner, but her attempt was went above the goal.