Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Burnett completes Bentonville rally
BENTONVILLE 2, BENTONVILLE WEST 1
BENTONVILLE — It’s not normal for a soccer player to feel the need to get farther away from the goal in order to get a better shot.
Ashby Burnett, however, admitted she had never experienced this situation before it transpired Friday night.
The senior defender almost allowed the ball to roll out of the box before she delivered her game-winning kick as Bentonville rallied to claim a 2-1 victory over Bentonville West in 6A-West Conference play at the Tiger Athletic Complex.
“I usually have better aim from farther away,” Burnett said about her decision. “In practice, I do better with long balls than short balls, so I thought I would try to get a loft on it and get an upper corner, and it worked.
“It actually took me a few seconds because I was in shock. I didn’t realize it went in until I saw all my teammates come running at me and hugging me. I was falling over. I play defense, so this was out of the ordinary for me.”
Gabriellah Davis set up the goal by throwing the ball in from the near sideline, then kicking it back into the box. The ball would eventually come to Gracie Jones at the 18-yard mark and in front of the goal, but she would send it to her left to Barnett.
Barnett then let the ball roll to the far corner of the box before she kicked it into the right side of the net with 3:25 remaining.
“I’m really happy for her,” Bentonville Coach Steven Porter said of Barnett. “She played a solid game. She came out for a little bit and said she was dizzy, and I asked her if she could go back in and she did. Then she gets the game-winning goal.
“I’m really proud of how the girls, as a group, kept playing and kept believing. I think the pressure and the anxiety of the game and the rivalry part of it caused us to make a number of uncharacteristic errors early in the game. After that, the way we played out the game was really good, and we demonstrated a lot of control.”
West (6-5-2, 2-1-1) needed less than 4 minutes to take a 1-0 lead lead as Tianna Jones connected on a header off a corner kick by Peyton Norby from the near sideline. Bentonville almost scored in the first half on Sydney Hopper’s long-range free kick, but a teammate ran into the Lady Wolverine goalkeeper before the ball went into the net and negated the score.
The Lady Tigers had 11 corner kicks during the match, and it eventually gave them the opportunity to tie the match. Star Chessir was able to get the ball out of traffic and fire it into the net with 9:14 remaining.
“We had some tactical things surrounding corners,” West Coach Kerry Castillo said. “The first goal came on a corner kick, but the ball came out. Their team experience proved to be an advantage.
“This is one of those things where being a really young team against a very experienced, veteran team can bite you and this was the case. The two goals they scored, we had freshmen and they were in the positions they were supposed to be in. But it was a good lesson where we can look at it. This is why film is so important.”
BOYS
BENTONVILLE 2, BENTONVILLE WEST 1
Mitchell Stone’s second-half goal proved to be the difference as Bentonville edged West in Friday’s early match.
Nick Martinovic recorded his second assist when he fed Stone, who drilled the ball into the goal with 16:39 remaining and gave the Tigers (6-5-1, 2-1-1) the lead for good.
Bentonville struck first when Wyatt Marksberry scored off a Martinovic assist with 34:46 left in the first half. The score remained that way until West (27-3, 0-3-1) tied it when Mateo Soto Gomez scored with 2:42 before halftime.