Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Lady Tigers Enjoy Good Start
PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove is 2-2-1 in its last five games after beginning the 2021 girls soccer season 6- 0 behind some key personnel moves by coaches Mat Stewart and Tommy Roy.
The Lady Tigers defeated Huntsville 7-0 Thursday coming off a 5-0 loss to Harrison last week. Prior to that the Lady Tigers tied Shiloh Christian 1-1, lost 5-0 to Berryville and beat Gentry 1-0.
A last minute decision to shift Alyssa LeDuc into a striker position paid handsome dividends for Prairie Grove girls soccer, defeating Dardanelle, 3-2, on March 30 behind two goals by LeDuc.
“That was a new wrinkle we put in. Alyssa usually plays wingback or an outside midfield for us, but we decided to move her up to a striker position tonight. She never practiced there, but we just talked about it before the game and she excelled there and we got us a striker,” Stewart said.
LeDuc seems to have an intuitive feel for the position and Stewart perceived an opportunity to capitalize upon her physical skills — partially out of necessity.
“She’s the fastest player on our team and she’s got a really good foot on her so we get that first touch in front of her and she’s going to cause problems, so that’s what we decided to go with,” Stewart said. “She’s got a knack
for goals. As a wingback and an outside midfielder she creates a lot of opportunities for us but we were having a hard time putting them away so we decided, ‘OK, let’s get her where she can score a little bit more.”
LeDuc’s teammates celebrated her success. Prairie Grove girls soccer players junior Trinity Dobbs and freshman Reese Powell were among the first on the field to congratulate LeDuc after her second goal. The move helped the Lady Tigers start conference play 1-0.
“Sometimes you get lucky as the coach and make the right call,” Stewart said.
Stewart made a number of key personnel moves strengthening the program such as persuading goalkeeper Taci Vickery to come out for the sport after building a relationship with her when Stewart coached Prairie Grove volleyball from 2016-19.
Vickery faced at least one game situation this season where an opponent was awarded not one, but two controversial penalty kicks from about 10 yards away. Both kicks went in, but with the game on the line, Vickery stopped three shots on goal in the final 1:53 to preserve a Lady Tiger win.
“It just puts a lot of pressure on you and you’re like, ‘I just got to stop everything. It all comes down to that. It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the whole 80 minutes before that. You just got to worry about those last few seconds because that could just change the whole game. You just got to be always ready on defense,” Vickery said.
Vickery celebrated the team’s 6-0 start coming into the first full week of April.
“Oh yeah, it’s really good. This is my first year playing, actually, so I’ve only been playing with this team for a couple of months,” Vickery said. “They’re very welcoming and we have a very good environment and we just feel like a very close family already and we just bond really good and I think that’s what’s keeping us going.”
The Lady Tigers own some big wins over Alma (7-0), Lincoln (6-0), Huntsville ( 8- 0), Danville ( 9-1), Gentry (2-0), and Dardanelle (3-2).
“Regardless of the score, 8-nothing, 3-2, this call or that call, the bottom line is we’re coming out here with the win and that’s what we’re looking for,” Stewart said.