BRYANT, Ark. — Bigger, faster, stronger, more experienced — after winning their first five games of the season, that's what the Bryant Hornets soccer team found when it entered play in the rugged 7A-Central Conference this year. And the story was the same on Tuesday, April 14, when they took on the Cabot Panthers.
Rugged is also a pretty good description of how soccer is played in the 7A-Central Conference and Tuesday was no different.
The Hornets, however, hoping to gain the inside track to clinching the league's sixth of six bids to the Class 7A State Tournament, battled through the adversity and played the Panthers evenly for two halves, one overtime and some of a second before losing yet another heartbreaker 1-0.[more]
Bryant, 7-11 overall and 1-9 in conference play, faces a must-win at North Little Rock on Thursday, April 16. They'll finish the regular season next week at Little Rock Central on Monday, at home against the Tigers on Tuesday and, on Thursday, April 23, at Cabot. They have little room for error in their quest.
Scoring woes continued to plague the Hornets who were shut out for the fifth time in the last six games.
"We needed this one," acknowledged Hornets coach Jason Hay. "We played hard. We had several shots on goal, especially in the first half, we just didn't have any go in. That's been our theme all year. It's been tough on them. We've just had trouble scoring. We've been playing solid defense."
The lone goal came with nine minutes left in the second overtime.
"We had a ball go over our defender and they had just a one-on-one with our keeper and they got it." Hay related.
"I was really proud of the effort," he added. "Our kids were tired. They put it all out there on the line. We just came up a little short.
"I thought in the first half, we attacked and had a lot more shots than they did," Hay explained. "The second half, I think it swung more Cabot's favor. It was just like a slugfest. We'd get a couple down there and we'd miss. They'd get it back and they'd miss. It just went back and forth a lot.
"Overall, it was a pretty even game," he summarized. "I thought we matched up well with them. We just got out-gunned again but it was close."
