There are only a couple of blemishes on the 6A-Central Conference record of the Bryant Lady Hornets. One is their lone league loss (and only loss overall), 1-0, at Conway. The other is a tie in their first conference match at Fort Smith Northside, 0-0.
On Friday night on Everett Field at Hornet Stadium, the Bryant girls avenged the tie by once again holding the Lady Bears scoreless and this time, Jackie Atilano, off an assist by Lily Miller, scored a goal 28 minutes into the first half as the Lady Hornets captured a 1-0 victory to improve the 9-1-2 overall and 6-1-1 in league play.
It was Northside’s first loss of the season. The Lady Bears are now 5-1-4 against conference rivals.
Bryant plays against the Mount St. Mary Belles on Tuesday, April 20, at Catholic High School in Little Rock.
Addison Funk had seven saves in the shutout on Friday. It was the ninth time the Lady Hornets have held an opponent scoreless.
“Addison kept a clean slate for us,” noted Lady Hornets coach Olivia Allard.
“It wasn’t our prettiest soccer, but the girls really, truly played as a team and played hard,” she added. “We knew Northside was going to be a battle.
“In the first half, they beat us at 50/50 balls,” the coach continued. “But we had some redemption on that in the second half. We still have to work on winning those consistently. I was pleased with our overall effort and that the girls stepped up to get this win.”
