Big second half sends Trojans past Rams

HOPE — Held scoreless in the first half, Hot Springs found its groove offensively in the final 40 minutes of Friday’s 5A-South soccer championship against Lakeside.

The Trojans netted four goals in the second half and downed the Rams 4-1 to secure a No. 1 seed for next week’s Class 5A tournament at Valley View.

“The first half, it was back and forth,” said Lakeside head coach Craig Moses. “I thought we had some good opportunities in the first half; we just couldn’t put them away. Defensely, we did exactly what the game plan was, and that was to apply pressure, especially Erick, on all their forwards. We did a good job of that. We didn’t give them a lot of room to work.”

Josue Hernandez needed only nine minutes to put the Trojans on the board in the second half as he took the ball from the right side across the pitch before left-footing a goal into the upper left quadrant of the net.

“It was beautiful,” said Hot Springs head coach Cory Sturdivant. “It was one of the nicer goals I’ve ever seen. He carried the ball from right to left, got it on his left foot, and as soon as he cleared that defender, he let it rip.”

Erick Guadron scored his 40th goal of the season inside the 18 as he got a cross from Cristian Jovel in the 57th minute.

Grant Viscardis was fouled in the box in the 61st minute when he was pulled down after getting a through ball, sending Russell Gartner to the spot for a penalty kick. Gartner got the ball past Hot Springs keeper Manny Santillan to cut the Trojan lead in half.

“When they got those two goals, the air kind of came out of us,” Moses said of his team. “Tactically, we had to get out of what we were doing, and it opened it up a little bit more and gave them a lot more opportunities. It did give us an opportunity to get down there and get that PK, but we did not go back to our tactical set.”

Four minutes later, Ryan Viscardis came out of the goal after the Trojans played the ball into the box, but it popped out. Guadron got control of the ball, but a Lakeside defender took him down before he was able to shoot, garnering a PK for the Trojans. Juan Santillan took the shot and gave Hot Springs a 3-1 lead.

In the 68th minute, Guadron picked up another goal from inside the six-yard box after Jovel lobbed the ball to him from the corner.

“They were able to execute on their opportunities, and earlier when we had a couple opportunities, we were not,” Moses said. “To me, that was the difference in the game. If we could execute early on two of our opportunities in the first half, it may have been a whole different ball game. That’s how games go.”

Sturdivant said that the Trojans defense was great, despite having one of his regular starters out due to a prior obligation.

“The defense played really well,” Sturdivant said. “We felt like the one that led to the PK was another 50-50 ball, and unfortunately, both kids went down inside the box. We had a kid who already had a prior obligation last night that normally starts on defense. We brought in Will Yanez to fill in for him, and he played exceptional in the back. Our defense really got the ball to the right places in the midfield and generated our counterattacks.”

The defending champion Trojans (18-4) will face 5A-Central No. 4 seed Pulaski Academy, who ousted them in the Class 5A state tournament in

2015, at noon Thursday. The Rams (18-4-1) will face 5A-Central No. 3 seed Sylvan Hills at

4 p.m.