May 7, 2024 at 2:19 p.m.
by Tony Burns
El Dorado’s girls soccer program is accustomed to entering the state tournament with a high seed and advancing beyond the first round. The Lady Wildcats had a bit of a struggle this season, however, and will carry a No. 3 seed into Thursday’s 5A State Tournament at Hot Springs Lakeside.
That adds up to a difficult opening-round draw against Harrison, the No. 2 seed from the rugged 5A West. The Goblins are 15-4-1 overall with two losses against Siloam Springs.
The game kicks off at 2 p.m.
“They’ve got a good program as far as they have a lot of league players. They’ve got a good pool to pull from. They’re going to be a tough team,” said El Dorado coach Neville Matthews. “I’m going in feeling like I’m the underdog. I just want my girls to play well and no matter the results, I’ll be happy. It’s going to be tough. It’s been a rough season.”
El Dorado brings an 11-5-1 record into the state tournament.
The Goblins lost to top seed Siloam Springs 1-0 last week.
“We’ve got to play more defensive minded and kind of opportunistic and, I mean, try to counter-attack them if they screw up. Defense is going to be our main focus,” said Matthews. “If we can hold them in a close game and beat them on a counter attack, I think we’ll be O.K. I’ve got London with her speed up top. If we can hold the defense and get the ball to her, I think she can get through their defense and tuck a couple balls into the net.”
The Lady Wildcats enter the game with a bit of a limp. In addition to graduating the bulk of its roster from last season, El Dorado lost its starting goalkeeper this year with defender Keyla Ramirez taking over in goal.
Offensively, senior London Ingram shouldered a lot of the scoring load and she was banged up at Lake Hamilton in the conference finale last week.
“We’ve got a few kids banged up. For the last few games, we’ve been digging deep,” Matthews said. “I mean London had a slight injury. Some of my defenders are hurt a little bit. They’re not using it as a crutch. They’re going to tough it out. They’ve been toughing it out. They’ll tough it out Thursday.
“But yeah, we’ve had to put a lot of band-aids on bullet wounds.”
The underdog role was foreign for the Lady Wildcats entering the season. But, they’ve gotten used to it and relish the challenge against Harrison. Matthews said the team has already achieved a lot this season.
“They dug deep. We’re kind of one-dimensional but we make it work. For what we have to work with, we make it work,” he said. “Just being in the playoffs is a plus for me. It’s not what I thought we’d be at all. If we made the playoffs at all, I thought we might squeak in as a fourth seed. But the guys toughed it out all season. They had to play hard to win. We just have to finish it out. Who knows? We play hard, we might come up with a W.
“We’re going to play well and hope for the best.”
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