Back from break
Soccer hosted Muskogee, Okla.
Siloam Springs’ girls got roped into playing a physical style of soccer that the Lady Panthers don’t necessarily like to play Monday night in a nonconference game against Muskogee, Okla.
The Lady Panthers toughed it out against the Lady Roughers and scored three first-half goals to earn a 3-0 victory at Panther Stadium.
“You know the girls played pretty well in the first half,” said head coach Brent Crenshaw. “We got into a game that we don’t like to play in the second half where it was just a physical game, but we did a good job of keeping a clean sheet.”
Junior Audrey Maxwell scored two goals, both on assists by Laura Morales, and Brooklyn Buckminster added a goal off a Sydney Bomstad corner kick to account for the Lady Panthers’ scoring.
Maxwell found the back of the net for her first goal in the fifth minute when Morales drove up the right flank and crossed to Maxwell who fired away for a 1-0 lead with 35:19 left in the first half.
Siloam Springs made it 2-0 in the 15th minute when Bomstad’s cornerkick found the head of Buckminster, who scored her fourth goal of the year. It was Bomstad’s third assist.
The Morales-Maxwell tandem hooked up again in the 28th minute. Paige Thompson started the play with a throw-in off the far side. Morales passed to Maxwell, who scored her team-leading 18th goal of the season. It was Morales’ fourth assist.
“(Maxwell) just does all the little things for us and continues to score and do all the little things that help us out,” Crenshaw said.
Things got a bit chippy in the second half.
Senior right back Mackenzie Jones was issued a yellow card with 23:12 left in the game, and Crenshaw felt another should have been issued on Muskogee and voiced his displeasure with the center official.
Jones is one of the Lady Panthers’ most physical players, but it’s not an overall team strength, Crenshaw said.
“No we’re not good at that. We’re not a physical team,” he said. “We’re kind of a finesse team where we’re really good with the ball at our feet. We’ve got some good individual physical players, but as a team that’s just not our strength. We don’t want to get into those battles.”
Buckminster, a center midfielder, went down with a right ankle injury later in the half on a scrum near the Lady Panthers’ goal.
“Hopefully it’s nothing too major,” Crenshaw said of Buckminster’s injury.
The Lady Panthers moved Maxwell from forward to midfield to sure up their middle after Buckminster went down.
The Lady Panthers showed some disorganization defensively early in the match which led to some Lady Rougher scoring opportunities.
“They had some good athletes,” Crenshaw said. “We were a little slow in the back in the first half. We were a little slow stepping. You could tell that we hadn’t played in a week and a half. Communication wasn’t very good, so we talked about that at halftime, and we did a better job of that in the second half. It’s something we have to continue to work on.”
The Lady Panthers and goalkeeper Anna Claire Lewis recorded their sixth shutout of the season, but there was a bit of controversy about that.
The Lady Roughers (6-2) looked like they might have scored a goal on a play where a Muskogee shot hit the crossbar and landed close to the goalline.
Muskogee coach Curt Denton felt like the ball might have been a score.
“We had one back there in the net, and as coach Crenshaw said, ‘I think that was in too,’” Denton said. “That kind of took a little gas out. My girls never quit fighting. We played Thursday, Friday, two Saturday and one today. Their tanks are a little bit empty.”
It was Siloam Springs’ first game since a 6-0 victory against Greenwood on March 16. The Lady Panthers were scheduled to play a 5A/6A District 1 game at Harrison on Tuesday. Results were not available at presstime.
“Coming back from spring break I knew we’d be a little bit rusty,” Crenshaw said. “We only came in (to practice) Sunday, so they had eight or nine days off, so I knew they’d be a little bit rusty. We wanted to use this game to get ready for Harrison (Tuesday) night. And I think we benefited from having the game tonight to work out some of those kinks.”
Siloam Springs returns to 5A/6A District 1 action on Tuesday, April 4, at home against Russellville in a rematch of last season’s Class 6A state championship match.