Bulldogs to honor 2012 team

Springdale High honored its 2012 state championship soccer team during halftime of the boys game between the Bulldogs and Springdale Har-Ber at Jarrell Williams Bulldog Stadium.

The 2012 team brought home the first of three state championship plaques under coach DJ Beeler and the fourth for the school overall. Springdale finished 19-1 in 2012 after beating Little Rock Catholic 3-0 in the Class 7A state championship game at Razorback Field in Fayetteville.

“It was just an overall dominant season for us,” said Jorge Gonzales, who led Springdale in scoring and contributed two of the three goals in the championship game against Little Rock Catholic. “I’ve never played with a better group of guys. I’ve never played on a team with chemistry like that and it went really well.”

Gonzales is Springdale’s all-time single-season leading scorer with 36 goals in 2012. But the Bulldogs had several skilled players that season including Nelson Landaverde, who went onto play Division I soccer at Valparaiso in Indiana. Little Rock Catholic entered the championship game in 2012 as the twotime defending state champions but Springdale was extra motivated after being eliminated in the semifinals the previous year by the Rockets.

“So far, it’s the most talented team I’ve ever had,” Beeler said. “We had really good players and the way the season ended in 2011, in a game we felt like we should’ve won, left a sour taste in their mouths. That was a real motivation going into the 2012 season and they were able to get it done.”