Cyclones shut out Panthers in quarters
SEARCY – The Benton Panthers soccer season would come to an end in the quarterfinals of the 5A State Tournament in Searcy Friday, falling 1-0 to the Russellville Cyclones after defeating Jonesboro 3-1 in the first round Thursday.
A scoreless match at the half, the West No. 1 seed and defending champion Cyclones (17-4-1) would get their winning goal with about 15 minutes left in the game as the Russellville defense shut down Benton’s potent offense, despite the South No. 3 seed Panthers (13-6-1) having several shots at goal.
“It was a back-and-forth game all day,” Benton Coach Bobby Winn said. “We knew we had to be more cautious on the defensive side. Limit their shots and counter. We probably had the most scoring opportunities we had against them. We had seven true looks and just couldn’t finish it off.
“It was a really exciting game to watch, especially if you were sitting in the stands, no doubt. Hats off to them (Russellville). They’re a talented bunch of kids. We knew that going in so it wasn’t a surprise for us. I knew the toughest team in the bracket was Russellville and it was going to be a championship-caliber matchup.”
The Panthers will lose Benton’s all-time leader in goals with senior Garrett Bosley graduating with 125 total goals. Bosley also holds the single-season record with 36, which he recently set after breaking his own record of
31, which he had last year. Bosley is also second all-time in assists.
Senior goalkeeper
Matt Braslavsky also had nine saves Friday against Russellville, bringing his season total to a career-high 68, and finished with 211 career saves, a Benton record. He also set the benchmark with 31 shutouts and a 41-14-3 overall record.
“You don’t know what to expect with any group of kids,” Winn said. “Losing the seniors we had last year, you got to see who’s going
to come in and play. I knew obviously having Garrett and Matt at goalkeeper, we could be in any game all season. It’s just who could come around. I was proud of those two. They were named team captains from Day 1 and they became great leaders in practice, the field and the classroom. They lifted everybody up. We had kids play above their potential all year because they saw how much effort Matt and Garrett would give and they knew how they had to match it.
“I’m not disappointed in our kids at all. In many years of coaching, it’s one of my proudest years because you look back on the season, you throw three goals, two goals in conference, in any games we lost, we’re the No. 1 seed.”
The Panthers will also say goodbye to seniors who stepped up all season long.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our seniors,” Winn said.
“They rose up when they had to. You got a kid like Taylan Akdamar, he comes in and embraces it. It’s a testament to our leaders and our seniors. David Couto,
Sam Bettis, Dawson Ramsey, Jeiden Ibarra, we couldn’t do it without Jeiden, any of those guys, because every one of them were team-first players.”
Though the team will be young next year, there will still be experience returning.
“We’re going to rebuild,” Winn said. “We’re going to do what we do. We’ve always been a contender since about my second year. It’s a mentality. It doesn’t matter who we play, the kids on the field are going to work hard and push for 80 minutes.
“We’re going to be alright. We have kids who are going to fight for spots to replace. We’ll bring back probably nine lettermen, had three freshmen letter this year. We’re going to be good to go, we’re just going to be really young next year. We’re not going to be a senior-laden team.”