Soccer suffer narrow defeats

 

By Rob Patrick

In a physical game on a soggy field on a blustery night in Russellville, the Bryant Hornets soccer team put together a late surge with three goals in the final 20 minutes and shots at pulling even but the home standing Cyclones held on for a 7-5 win on Tuesday, April 8. The loss came on the heels of a 3-0 setback at North Little Rock the previous night after the Hornets had won two of three matches the previous week.

Meanwhile the Lady Hornets’ struggles on offense continued. On Tuesday, they suffered a 2-0 loss to Russellville after a gut-wrenching 1-0 decision at North Little Rock the night before.

The two teams have a busy schedule ahead as they try to make up games that were postponed earlier in the season due to the weather conditions. An April 10 game at home against Conway was postponed to Monday, April 14. The next day they were set to host Cabot with North Little Rock visiting on Thursday, April 17.

“I thought we played pretty good at North Little Rock,” said Hornets head coach Kenny Horn. “We competed pretty well. I know we probably should’ve been up by two or three goals in the first half. I bet we missed four or five shots.

“I really think we’re getting better as far as our moving the ball around and getting shots on the goal,” he added.

At Russellville, Aaron Miller had a goal for the Hornets in the first half after Russellville put one in early. It stayed 1-1 for awhile before the Cyclones added another goal and the 2-1 lead held until the half.

“Within five minutes of the second half, they scored three goals,” Horn recounted. “Within three or four minutes, we countered and made it 5-2. They made it 7-2 with about 25 minutes left. There was about a five-minute lull there where nothing really happened then the last 20 minutes, we kind of went like I hadn’t seen before. We reeled off three goals and actually made a game of it. And we had a chance. We had probably three more shots on the goal that, if we get lucky and a couple go in, we could tie the game up and play overtime.”

Michael Chun and Matias Dominguez scored two goals each for the Hornets and drew praise from the coach who added, “Carlton Norris is playing lights out and Miller’s playing really hard.

“I actually think we got rooked on a couple of calls,” Horn added. “They gave them a couple of penalty kicks that they probably shouldn’t have got.”

Looking ahead, he added, “Right now, we’re looking from the outside-in on going to the playoffs. We’ve still got a chance because we’ve still got to play everyone again. We’re looking to see if we can get better. We’ve got a lot of games stacked up in a short time because of the weather and hardly any practice time but the kids are responding well. We’re just going to go out there and try to make the playoffs.”

For the Lady Hornets, the offensive woes have started to take their toll. In eight games this season, Bryant has scored six goals. The shutouts against North Little Rock and Russellville were the second and third games in a row and fourth in the last five contests they have been kept off the board.

Against North Little Rock, the lone goal of the game came early.

“We just couldn’t seem to connect,” acknowledged Lady Hornets coach Doug Maxwell. “We had several breakaway opportunities and crosses that were coming over, we just missed some people. That’s really been the story for us. The girls have played well. They’ve played strong and they’re getting better and better. But it’s kind of getting to a frustrating point. We just can’t seem to finally connect.

“It was the same problem we had (against Russellville),” he continued. “We had several more opportunities going down and breakaway opportunities and we couldn’t seem to connect across the middle. We’re in the right place and everything else but we can’t seem to find the right touch on the ball to get it in the back of the net.

“But we’re competing in every game,” he asserted. “We’re playing with everybody. But until we can get rolling offensively, we’re just struggling a little bit.”

Maxwell praised his defense, saying, “The defense is playing well. We’re averaging giving up right at two goals a game, just under, for the season. The defense is holding their own and they’re taking it really hard right now — really the whole team is —  because they know we’re struggling offensively and anytime a goal gets put in, it’s makes it a little difficult for us.