Girls have eyes on the prize
■ Siloam Springs defeats Benton in Class 6A semifinals.
Siloam Springs’ girls soccer team has its eye on the bigger prize.
The three-time defending 6A state champions scored two early goals and added one more in the second half to defeat Benton 3-0 in the Class 6A state semifinals held Saturday morning at Panther Stadium.
Siloam Springs will make its fifth straight appearance in the Class 6A girls state title game next weekend in Fayetteville and will be looking for its fourth straight championship.
The celebration on the field after Saturday’s win was brief as Siloam Springs still has work to do.
“We celebrated a little more once we got into the locker room,” said junior midfielder Brooklyn Buckminster, who scored the game’s first goal. “But there’s still one more game ahead to look forward to.”
Buckminster corralled a pass from Megan Hutto with 34:14 left in the first half and fired away from more than 20 yards into the lower left corner by Benton goalkeeper Jayme Selph to give Siloam Springs a 1-0 lead.
It was Buckminster’s 10th goal and Hutto’s team-leading and single-season record 20th assist.
Siloam Springs pulled ahead 2-0 about seven minutes left when Hutto took a pass from Hadley Crenshaw. She started right, switched to her left foot and went left and fired for a goal with 27:14 remaining on the clock.
It was Hutto’s 24th goal, which ranks second on the team, and Crenshaw’s eighth assist.
Siloam Springs (23-3) had multiple chances to add to their lead in the first half but couldn’t finish some good looks.
Laura Morales added a goal with 20:18 left in the second half to set the final score. Audrey Maxwell assisted on the play for Siloam Springs. The goal was Morales’ 11th and Maxwell’s 16th assist.
“I don’t know if you’d call it trouble finishing,” said Siloam Springs head coach Brent Crenshaw. “I just think Benton was a lot better than they were last year. I’ve been talking to their coach and he told me they’re a lot better than they were.”
Siloam Springs defeated Benton 7-1 in the state quarterfinals in El Dorado on its way to the state title a year ago.
“He says they start two freshmen and seven sophomores, so they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the next year or two,” Crenshaw said.
Benton coach Jason Gentry said he was proud of his team’s effort. Benton finishes the season at 17-7.
“I knew if they were going to beat us, they were going to have to work for it,” Gentry said. “We were going to make them work for it. We weren’t going to bunker back. That’s one thing I’m really proud of our girls for — for fighting. Had a couple of them banged up but just really proud of them.”
Siloam Springs greatly outshot Benton, which only had a couple of good looks. Abby Walker, who scored two goals in a win Friday against Mountain Home, probably had the best of all in the second half.
After playing in cool overcast weather on Friday, Siloam Springs played in warmer, sunnier conditions on Saturday, which had an effect.
“We played OK in spurts I think the heat kind of affected us,” Crenshaw said. “We were able to have a pretty deep bench today. That helped us save our legs, but they’re a good team. We were able
to finish three. We could have finished another couple of other ones, but hey at the end the of the day, you’ve got to get in and hey that’s all that matters.”
Siloam Springs now advances to the state finals against the winner of Saturday’s other semifinal between Russellville and Searcy. Results were not available at presstime.
Siloam Springs 4, Texarkana 0
Host Siloam Springs advanced to the semifinals after a 4-0 shutout against Texarkana in the Class 6A girls soccer state tournament Friday afternoon.
The match, which was postponed to 2 p.m. from its original 10 a.m. start time, saw the top seed Lady Panthers (22-3) take an early lead after Audrey Maxwell netted her 39th goal of the season with 24 minutes left in the opening half. Maxwell received the ball, beat a defender and sent a shot past Texarkana goal keeper Megan Holder.
Siloam Springs’ Megan Hutto followed Maxwell’s tally with a second goal with nine minutes remaining in the first half. Hutto sent a ball across the mouth of the goal, where it hit Holder and bounced in. Holder nearly managed to keep Hutto’s shot out of the goal by pinning it to the inside of the post, but after deliberation, the officiating crew determined that the ball had crossed the goal line.
Even after finding themselves in a 2-0 hole, Texarkana played a defensive style of soccer, only registering two shots. Neither of the shots came in regular play, as both of which were off free kicks from distance, and neither generated a rebound.
“It’s tough to play against a team that bunkers in with 11 players,” said Siloam Springs coach Brent Crenshaw. “It’s frustrating, I wish teams would just play against us straight-up.”
“We knew that would happen sometime, just not against them,” Crenshaw said. “Haven’t seen them enough. It was a good challenge for our girls, to be able to break down teams that do that against us.”
Siloam Springs dominated the scoring chances, generating eight shots in the first half and nine more in the second frame.
The Lady Panthers chipped in another two goals in the second half to seal the victory. The first came just six minutes into the second half, when Paige Thompson finished a pass across the box from Hutto. Thompson made no mistake, as she buried the pass into a yawning net.
The hosts withstood a late rush from Texarkana that led to a corner kick from the visitors. Unfortunately for the Razorbacks, neither the corner kick nor the subsequent throw-in generated a shot.
Hadley Crenshaw finished the scoring when she collected a rebound from Shelby Johnson’s shot and ran it into the net.
“We definitely come out and practice, and we try hard everyday,” said Thompson. “The offseason makes it worth it.”
The loss ended a season for Texarkana that saw the Razorbacks put together a record of 11-10. Texarkana beat Marion by a score of 11-1 on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals.
— Herald-Leader reporter Michael Burchfiel contributed to this story.