Bryant girls sew up league’s third seed
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this time of COVID-19, with no sports action, BryantDaily.com will be posting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
The Bryant Lady Hornets soccer team bounced back from a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to the Little Rock Central Lady Tigers to earn the AAAAA-Central Conference’s No. 3 seed to the Class AAAAA State Tournament with a 5-0 win over the Little Rock Parkview Lady Patriots on Thursday, April 20, at J.A. Fair High School.
The Lady Hornets will take on host El Dorado, the No. 2 seed from the AAAAA-South, in their State opener at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 29. Before that, however, they’ll play their final regular-season game at home and celebrate Senior Night, against the rival Benton Lady Panthers on Tuesday, April 25.
“We had an excellent first half against Central,” stated Lady Hornets coach Doug Maxwell. “It was a solid game plan. We really controlled the game, out-played them in the first half. I was really pleased with the way we played.”
Before intermission, the Lady Hornets out-shot the Lady Tigers, 12-5. Bryant’s Ashley Moscow got a shot to go in the net off an assist from Bridgette McPeak with about eight minutes left.
“That was a solid play there,” Maxwell noted. “We were doing really well.
“It was a nice warm day,” he added, “Ninety-five degrees out there. We were holding up pretty good but we’re a little thin as far as subs go and we’d been playing that way for awhile. The second half, the more the game dragged on, the more the heat kind of got to us.”
Central tied the game early in the second half.
“But we were able to hold off their barrage — they out-shot us in the second half, 9-3 — our defense held up,” Maxwell mentioned. “Then, with about 3:50 left, they hit a nice shot from the right corner, probably 38 yards out. It starts going and the wind — it was blowing a little bit that day. It got a nice breeze behind it and it just carried and carried and carried. It was a beautiful shot. I just wish I’d been on the other end of it. She just skied the ball, got a nice gust of wind and it just carried it.”
The Lady Hornets were bidding for their first win ever over a Central team and, more importantly, a chance to move up in the standings and earn a higher seed at State.
“We went into the game with a lot more confidence, especially when we got the early goal on them,” Maxwell stated. “We were able to withstand a couple of runs by them. Our keeper did an outstanding job for us and our defense did a great job.
“We played with everything we had and did an outstanding job,” he added. “Unfortunately, we were running out of gas there at the end against a good team.”
So, the Lady Hornets needed to beat Parkview to sew up third and they responded well, earning their third shutout of the season.
Morgan Hart scored two goals. Moscow, Brittany Starrett and Lori Williams also scored in a game in which everyone played.
“It was a nice game for us, to finish up conference with a win,” Maxwell said. “We’re excited about going to State.”
