El Dorado girls clinch soccer title

PEARCY — Still unbeaten in conference play, El Dorado wrapped up the Class 6A- South girls’ soccer title Friday with a dominating 6- 0 rout of Lake Hamilton on Summit Bank Field at Wolf Stadium.

“Our eyes are on the bigger picture right now,” El Dorado coach Neville Matthews said. “This is like the fourth time in a row for us to win the conference. We just have to do better than last year and win some games at state.

Hannah Ponder scored first in the 10th minute, collecting a deflected cross about 15 yards out and cranking a shot over the outstretched hands of goalkeeper Sydney Roper.

Kasey Smith, El Dorado’s season- high scorer, scored in the 14th minute , taking Lauren Lockhart’s pass and dribbling past two defenders toward the left shot before shooting to the right.

Although Lake Hamilton’s defense tightened, El Dorado made it 3- 0 in the 32nd minute, Jordan Richardson taking a long pass from Ponder and blasting a shot past Roper.

“I’ve lost four forwards and I had one girl out there who had never played forward before, so our main job tonight was to play defense and to hold them as much as we could,” Lake Hamilton coach Stacey Scott said. “El Dorado is good ( with) a lot of seasoned, experienced players, but I thought our girls played exceptionally well. They

played with heart and did everything I asked them to.”

Lake Hamilton ( 3- 5, 2- 5) withstood 12 El Dorado shots on goal in the first half, Roper with nine saves ( she finished with 11).

“She did phenomenally,” Scott said. “She did a great job and made some great saves.”

Richardson scored in the 46th minute and Lockhart, after a nifty pass from Smith, in the 56th minute for a 5- 0 lead.

“We know we have a pretty good goal scorer in ( Smith), so we try to work it outside in the midfield so we don’t become one- dimensional,” Matthews said. “So coming from all over the field is pretty good. If a team is trying to stop us, they can’t focus on just one player.”

The mercy rule was invoked in the 60th minute when Kerri Dear sent home a onetouch pass from Hannah Burroff. El Dorado outshot Lake Hamilton 27- 3.

Lake Hamilton concludes the regular season Monday at Texarkana.