Fayetteville rallies to force draw
6A-WEST GIRLS SOCCER
BENTONVILLE — Fayetteville’s girls soccer team didn’t get many offensive chances Tuesday night, but it made the most of one when it mattered most against defending state champion Bentonville.
Freshman Sarah Rainer’s goal with 7:33 remaining tied the match 1-1 and a draw was the final result in both teams’ 6A-West Conference opener at the Tiger Athletic Complex.
Fayetteville sophomore Janie Kramer got behind Bentonville’s back line and passed ahead to Rainer for the goal.
“I think we were just working so hard to get that one goal to tie it up,” said Kramer, a team captain. “This is what we’ve been working for all offseason, and in the moment I just trusted my teammate to make a run and put it at her feet and she finished.”
Fayetteville (4-1-1, 0-0-1) had been down 1-0 since the 4:10 mark of the first half when Bentonville’s Samantha Ayala scored off a Kayla Hurley assist for a 1-0 lead.
The Lady Bulldogs stayed engaged though, according to assistant coach Stephanie Alkire, who was acting head coach for the game. Fayetteville Coach Joe Thoma had to sit out because of a red card he received in a match against Rogers last week.
“For us, our girls were locked in,” Alkire said. “They were laser-focused, and they did not waver at being down 1-0. They knew they had to execute and play out of that and capitalize on any opportunity they had, and they did that. They work together so well as a team and just as a unit. They were focused.”
The draw was a big result for Fayetteville after losing to Bentonville 3-0 in the Class 6A state title game last year.
“Bentonville’s a very strong team. They push us to play at our very best, and so sometimes you’ve got to be patient in the moment and you’ve got to keep putting in the work and then wait for that opportunity to come, and when that opportunity comes you’ve got to attack with 100%. That’s what we did. Our girls were ready. They understood what we needed to do, and they executed that to the fullest.”
It was a tough draw to swallow for Bentonville (7-21, 0-0-1). Lady Tigers Coach Steve Porter said the late goal would be a teaching moment that would help his team down the road.
“It’s a bit of risk-reward,” Porter said. “Did that moment, when we were ahead, have to try and play out of pressure or was there a greater responsibility on the other team to break us down? Meaning we don’t have to have possession to score there to win the game.
We could have just lumped it down their throat and said ‘Alright, what are you going to do with it?’ Again, we’ll learn from this and be better moving forward.”