El Dorado shuts down LH for league crown

PEARCY — El Dorado stunned Lake Hamilton with a pair of first- half goals, and senior goalkeeper Rob Brown made sure they stood up.

The Wildcats defeated the Wolves 2- 0 in a cardmarred 6A- South conference showdown Friday on Summit Bank Field at Wolf Stadium. El Dorado, unbeaten in conference play, captured the outright league title with two games left.

“Rob does a good job back there,” El Dorado coach Kris Borosvskis said. “We’re going to miss him next year, but Rob is part of a big picture. We’ve got 11 guys on the field doing their job, and I have to commend Rob on some great saves but I have to commend the other kids out on the field doing their jobs as far as defending and possessing the ball and scoring two crucial goals for us that gave us a big conference win.”

Brown’s biggest save was a diving stop on a Logan Steed penalty kick in the 74th minute. Brown only had to save five shots but cut out nearly every pass the Wolves ( 10- 3, 9- 3) tried to make in the box.

And when he was beaten, his teammates made a pair of saves.

“El Dorado is one of those teams ( that’s) good year in and year out,” Lake Hamilton coach Stan Cooper said. “... We had plenty of opportunities. We had lots of opportunities in the first half, but I just don’t think we showed up and played like we’re capable of playing.”

With Lake Hamilton owning possession for the first 10 minutes, Matthew Emrich’s goal in the 11th minute came as a shocker. Midfielder Chris Gathright knocked a long, one- touch pass to Emrich and the senior striker gave the Wildcats ( 17- 2, 12- 0) a 1- 0 advantage.

“Thankfully, we were patient, saw an opening, took advantage of it and slipped one past the defense,” Borosvskis said. “We got ourselves a little one- on- one with the defense there, and he did a good job of finishing.”

Gathright also had the assist on El Dorado’s second goal, making a long cross to Logan Maynor in the 20th minute. Maynor caught goalkeeper Omar Vega out of position and slipped his low delivery into the far corner of the goal.

Once the scoring stopped, the fouling picked up and cards flew out of the referees’ pocket. Before halftime, Colby Murphy, Gathright and Will Harter each had yellow cards for El Dorado, Gathright and Harter during the final minute of the half, and Trevor Mittelstadt had a yellow for Lake Hamilton.

The card situation flipped in the second half, the Wolves receiving five to El Dorado’s one. Emrich received a yellow that resulted in Lake Hamilton’s failed penalty kick.

“Our character got to us tonight,” Cooper said. “Two red cards, I don’t know how that’s going to affect us at Texarkana on Monday, but we’re going to regroup and we’re going to go play.”

Tension mounted when Lake Hamilton’s Brandon Hillard picked up a yellow in the 50th minute for arguing a foul call. During the stoppage, Lake Hamilton assistant Rob Hillard, the player’s father, argued with the referee and received a red card. A further verbal exchange with the referee led to Brandon Hillard receiving a red card.

Lake Hamilton experienced its second player ejection when Mittelstadt picked up his second yellow in the 66th minute. Jeff Olaru picked up a yellow in the 77th minute.

Lake Hamilton looks to wrap up at least a share of second place in the conference Monday at Texarkana.