Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Tiger Boys Lose To Harrison
PRAIRIE GROVE — In the Tigers’ last soccer match before spring break, 5A Harrison (3-4) came into Prairie Grove (3-2-1) and dealt the Tiger boys a 7-2 non-conference loss Thursday, March 15.
Prairie Grove trailed 4-0 at the half and gave up a fifth goal early in the second half. Team captain Josh Brant scored a pair of goals for the Tigers in the second half.
“Josh, he finally kind of settled in,” said Prairie Grove coach Darren Chandler. “He got some good runs in the first half, he just couldn’t finish it. He made his first goal with his left foot, that’s pretty impressive.”
The Goblins played aggressive throughout the match pressing the attack and took an early 2-0 lead. With the clock showing 18:23 left in the first half, Prairie Grove’s goalkeeper made a save.
The Tigers looked to get their offense going with Brant getting a shot-on-goal, but Harrison prevented a score. With 5:23 remaining, the Tiger defense turned away another shot with an attacker in the box. Harrison repeatedly worked its offense and Goblin senior middle forward Kendall Fowler kicked the ball past a diving save attempt to notch a third goal.
Harrison had more opportunities playing the ball in from the side at the 3:48 mark a head shot bounced out-of-bounds to the right of the goal. Prairie Grove wasn’t as fortunate on a toss from the left side with the clock down to 1:55. Fowler’s quick kick scored a goal and Harrison took a 4-0 lead into the half.
“We definitely learned a little bit about ourselves in some of the major areas we need to improve,” Chandler said. “I’ll put that together tonight and we’ll work on it tomorrow. We’ve got to work on our back three defenders not diving in without winning the ball.”
Tyler Wilson added a fifth goal for the Goblins with 37:53 to go in the second half. Thirty seconds later Brant took a shot from the left wing, but the kick went over the goal posts. Harrison wasted no time reversing the field continuing to launch multiple attacks. Moving left the Tiger goalie made a save with 34:00 in the second half. A Goblin kick rolled short 1:08 thereafter and 41 seconds beyond that Harrison mounted a head-shot off a corner kick that went wide left.
Two players collided with Prairie Grove’s Brand LeDuc absorbing an undercut. Still, the ruling went in
favor of Harrison but the Goblins couldn’t capitalize.
Brant finally got Prairie Grove on the scoreboard by scoring a goal at the 25:04 mark of the second half. Harrison answered with two goals in a 2:10 span to up the lead to 7-1. Brant’s second goal for Prairie Grove came with 10:36 to play. Harrison reserves took the field with a line change and they too pushed the Tiger defenders. The Goblins missed twice in the final 1:18 after corner kicks, but won 7-2.
Chandler wasn’t ready to say Harrison is the strongest team the Tigers may face although he acknowledged the Goblins played well.
“There’s going to be some others that are pretty good, too,” Chandler said. “Some of these schools have good programs.”