Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Lady Mounties clinch No. 2 seed in 6A-West
ROGERS 2, ROGERS HERITAGE 1
ROGERS — Rogers wasn’t on the radar to finish near the top of the league in the 6A-West Conference girls soccer standings in the preseason.
But after the eighth and final league match Tuesday, that’s just where the Lady Mounties finished.
Rogers clinched the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in next week’s Class 6A state tournament with a 2-1 victory over rival Rogers Heritage at Whitey Smith Stadium.
With a team loaded with freshmen and sophomores and only six seniors, Rogers Coach Oscar Cardona agreed his club was the surprise of the conference.
“When you look at this team and how young we are, you wouldn’t think we’d be finishing as the second seed,” Cardona said. “We probably would have been in the top four at least, but nobody thought we were going to finish second.”
The Lady Mounties (10-5-1, 6-2) lost to both Bentonville and Bentonville West but picked up 3 points against all other 6A-West opponents for 18, behind three-time conference champion Bentonville’s 22.
“It was a great job by these girls,” Cardona said. “They worked hard, and I think they deserved that second seed. It’s been a while since we’ve been a second seed.”
Rogers took a 1-0 lead with just 32 seconds remaining before halftime.
Freshman Meili Brady’s corner kick from the home side found the head of junior Hailey Prendas in front of the goal to put the Lady Mounties on the board.
“That was big,” Cardona said. “Scoring before going into half was huge just because we knew that we needed momentum going into the second half. We’ve kinda struggled all year scoring, so scoring before half that was a big break for us.”
Rogers went up 2-0 in the second half when senior Anakaren Gallardo passed ahead to freshman Deja Martinez. Heritage’s goalkeeper Mia Crawford came out to challenge Martinez, who lofted the ball into the goal.
Heritage tightened things up late with a goal from senior Josie Wakefield, who dribbled through the Lady Mounties’ defense and scored with 9:59 remaining.
The Lady War Eagles (9-5-2, 3-3-2) came into the game fighting for a playoff spot. Coach Meagan Johnson was glad to see her team still fighting late.
“That’s exactly what I told them for the second half,” Johnson said. “We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I told them to come out and play with everything they had, and I thought they did a lot better the second half.”