Rams, Blazers set for thrilling final
Lakeside was summed up succinctly by Valley View head coach Ron Teat when discussing the Rams in preparation for today’s Class 5A state soccer final at Fayetteville: “They never quit.”
“What I’ve noticed about Lakeside, just watching them play Little Rock Christian in the semifinals before we got there, is just that they never quit,” Teat said. “They’re hard-nosed, and they’re going to battle from the first whistle to the last whistle. On top of having good players, that’s what makes them a little special.”
Coming from the head coach of a team that is 21-3-2 and has outscored its opponents 111-14, that statement sums up the season for the Rams (18-6-1) quite well.
Lakeside entered the Class 5A state tournament as the No. 4 seed from the
5A-South, pitted against the top-seeded team from the 5A-West and tournament favorite Maumelle. The Hornets, previously undefeated, had allowed just four goals all season, but the Rams managed to find the back of the net three times to nearly double the number of goals the team had allowed in a single game.
The Rams needed more than the regulation 80 minutes as the score was tied, 2-2, to force two overtime periods before Luke Long scored the winning goal with under a minute remaining before penalty kicks.
The quarterfinal against Batesville
(15-9) came down to the final minutes when a Pioneer missed on a penalty kick with two minutes to spare to essentially give the Rams the win.
Last Saturday’s semifinal against Little Rock Christian (15-8) left Lakeside playing nearly 30 minutes down a player after Russell Gartner received a red card to be ejected from the game as well as today’s final.
Those games are just the cap on a season that has been a battle from start to finish.
Until last week’s state tournament, Lakeside did not have all of its players available to play since the second match on March 1 against Pulaski Academy (136). Of their 24 matches this season, four of those have resorted to penalty kicks, and all of their losses, other than the 4-0 loss to Class 6A Benton (16-3), have been by two goals or less, with one of those decided by PKs.
Valley View is no slouch of a team, either. The Blazers are on a seven-game winning streak. Their last loss was at home against perennial rival, Class 6A Jonesboro (25-2).
They are not unfamiliar with the state soccer finals, either. Valley View last made the tournament in 2016, falling to the Hot Springs Trojans in their first of two back-to-back state titles, but the Blazers claimed the Class 4A state title in 2013.
“Obviously, this is a senior group that has been here to the finals,” Teat said. “This senior group has played a lot of South teams over the past four years, so they’re familiar with the level of competition that Lakeside has to go through each and every year to get to the state
tournament and understand that this is a very good team that we’re facing.
“We’re not going to go out and do anything different than what we’ve done all year long. These kids have competed and played hard. We’re not going to change anything. I expect it’s going to be a pretty good game. I think it’s two good groups going against each other, probably two good defenses.”
Valley View’s last test by a team from the 5A-South was Hope (11-9) in the second round of the state tournament on May 11, winning 7-3, but the Bobcats were the only team other than Jonesboro to score more than a single goal against the Blazers this season.
Lakeside head coach Craig Moses has a simple game plan for today’s match — keep Valley View from taking the advantage.
“The biggest game plan is to just try and play a strong defense,” he said. “We know we’ve got to pack the middle, and we’ve got to stay packed in in the back, try not to let them go through our gaps, try not to have big gaps on our defense for them to slide the ball through there. I’ve seen them, and they do a very good job of attacking through gaps. We’ve talked about staying compact in the back. Wingers have to get back and help on the flanks on defense.
“Offensively, we have to control the middle. With Russell (Gartner) being out, that’s going to be a challenge, but I’m going to move (Nic) Cato in the middle, and I think that will help out. We’ve played him in there before. Him and Miguel and Luke are going to have to play strong in the middle there and be able to distribute the ball to our forwards and wings. Attacking-wise, we’ve got to continue to create space and be able to run off the ball and be able to challenge shots. Any time we shoot the ball, somebody else has to be up there challenging any bounce-off or kickback.”
Neither team is looking back to last year’s quarterfinal.
“This is a new season and a whole new team for them and a whole new team for us,” Moses said. “It really doesn’t (bother us). We can use it as a motivation, and hopefully the kids will. I, myself, have not really weighed on it a whole lot because it’s a new season, a new year, and we’ve got to go on from there.”
Teat agrees.
“My kids and myself, we haven’t even mentioned last year’s game or anything,” he said. “That’s last year, and these are two totally different teams now. I know Lakeside is senior-laden and got a lot of seniors, and we do, too. In the same sense, we don’t look back and expect anything that happened last year to be able to affect the game this year.”
Teat feels the Rams are a solid team, but he is not planning to focus on any one athlete.
“I just think they’re overall a good unit,” he said. “Just like any team, you’ve got a couple players that might stand out a little bit. For example, two years ago when we were in the same spot, obviously we knew Erick (Guadron) from Hot Springs, so we had to key in on that. Lakeside is more of a team-oriented group, and we’re going to try to go out there and compete with them.”
One concern for Moses is the change in the team’s pregame schedule, but he had a simple message for his team: “Don’t let it be a distraction.”
“It is a different day for the kids because we’re going to have to leave the hotel early to get there,” he said. “Then they’re going to rush us in to get pictures. It’s a lot of distractions, but, like I told the players the other day, ‘Take it all in and enjoy it. Especially you seniors will not get this opportunity again. These younger players may not not get that opportunity again. Take it all in, one thing at a time and enjoy it while you’re there. Don’t let it be a distraction; let it be enjoyable because it’s a blessing just to be up there.’”
Kickoff for today’s Class 5A final is set for noon at Razorback Field. A live-stream of the match can be viewed at http://www. nfhsnetwork.com.