Rams avenge soccer loss to De Queen, 1-0
With Ryan Viscardis standing tall in net, Lakeside’s boys soccer team avenged a recent
5-1 home loss to De Queen with a 1-0 road victory Tuesday night.
Caleb Lloyd, assisted by Grant Viscardis, scored the only goal late in the first half.
“We played extremely well,” said Lakeside head coach Craig Moses. “The defense played extremely well. We stayed compact. Ryan Viscardis had another great night with about
10 saves, probably four saves that were game-savers. They were point-blank, and he reacted to them and saved them, kept us in the game.”
“We played our butts off,” Moses said. “The first 15 minutes of the game we took it to them, and then we kinda got tired, and they took it to us for about 20 minutes. It was a back-and-forth game that could have gone either way.”
The Rams’ midfield kept control most of the night, Moses said.
“Jack Butler had another strong game in the middle, so did Russell Gartner,” Moses said. “I thought we did a lot better job controlling it this game than we did the first game. Defensively, pretty much across the board, we played really good defensively. Not only did Ryan have a good defensive game, but Joe Pultz had a really good game at sweeper. He really stepped up and kept the ball from getting past him, except maybe one or two times, but they were offsides. He did a good job managing the back end for us.”
In a game scheduled Friday, Lakeside (16-3-1, 11-2 in 5A/6-6) goes to Hope tonight.
“Apparently Friday the weather is supposed to be pretty bad around 5 or 6 p.m.,” Moses said. “We don’t have any wiggle-room. We can’t play Saturday; we’ve got prom. We’re not going to play Sunday, and Monday starts district.”
De Queen (13-5-1, 8-3) goes to Lake Hamilton on Friday. The Rams and Leopards are seeded second and third, respectively, and square off again in the district tournament at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Hope.
• De Queen overcame a strong performance by Lakeside keeper Jessica Bishop to win the girls’ game 5-0.
“We are short four of our girls,” said Lakeside head coach Karrie Irwin. “We’re still out Rhea Yeargan at fullback, and I’ve lost Faith (Webb) for two more games with a concussion. That’s two people that start on our defense. I lost my forward last night as well, Bella Geisleman, so I think everybody’s kinda feeling hopeless.”
De Queen scored two goals in the first half and three in the second.
“We had plenty of opportunities to make a goal last night,” Irwin said. “The goalie kept coming out of the box, out on the field, and she was missing the ball. Their defense was strong enough to get back in there and stop us, though. We’re not passing; we’re not controlling the ball. We know what we’re doing wrong. They just get anxious.”
Despite the one-sided result, Irwin was impressed with the sportsmanship of the Lady Leopards.
“We had a wonderful time,” she said. “It’s not like we had a horrible game or played against unsportsmanlike players; they were all great. We just weren’t playing like we should have.”
Lakeside (5-12, 3-6) plays tournament host Hope at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Top seed De Queen (15-1-1, 10-1) faces Monday’s Hot Springs-White Hall winner Wednesday.